While this will be the first time for 54 years that the Lea Singers have not been giving their traditional Christmas Concert in Harpenden Public Hall, do not despair, for FestiveLea will be featuring as MerriLea in the form of a Digital Advent Calendar.
For 25 days you will be able to “Tune In” and watch a series of animated sketches and film featuring Leas old and new singing and performing festive songs, verse and sketches.
And most importantly we hope to raise lots of money for 25 different charities.
To join the fun, choose the charity you would like to support and click Pay with PayPal. Then you can either use your PayPal account if you have one, or choose the Pay by Debit or Credit Card option at the bottom of the PayPal window.
You should receive a confirmation email straight away, and then a daily email throughout December with a link to that day’s video.
If you would like to order calendars for friends and family at the same time, please pay and follow the instructions in the confirmation email to let us know their email addresses.
MerriLea sales are now closed. Thank you to all of you who supported our charities.
Our chosen charities
Action on Pre-eclampsia
Pre-eclampsia is a serious disease of pregnancy, affecting up to 10% of pregnancies and leading to the death of c. 700 babies in the UK each year. Action on Pre-eclampsia aims to raise awareness, improve care and provide support to mums, families and health care professionals.
British Heart Foundation
BHF funds research into heart and circulatory diseases and their risk factors.
Cancer Research UK
Cancer Research UK aims to reduce the number of deaths from cancer through research, diagnosis and treatment.
Cat Welfare Luton
Cat Welfare Luton is a small cat rescue charity that has been helping cats across Herts, Beds and Bucks for the past 20 years. They specialise in strays, ferals, and those in most urgent need. Feral cats are trapped and neutered, returned to site, and fed daily. Feral kittens are socialised by very experienced foster carers, and then found loving new homes in pairs. They do a lot of hand rearing and have a high success rate of saving sick and weak kittens.
Crisis
Crisis is the UK national charity for homeless people. The charity offers year-round education, employment, housing and well-being services from centres in London, Newcastle, Oxford, Edinburgh and Merseyside, called Crisis Skylight Centres.
Essex and Herts Air Ambulance
Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust is a charity air ambulance service providing a free, life-saving Helicopter Emergency Medical Service for the critically ill and injured of Essex, Hertfordshire and surrounding areas.
Happy Days Children's Charity
On 10 Dec Beechwood Park School is raising funds for Happy Days Children’s Charity to help terminally ill, sick, disabled and abused children and young carers with respite breaks, holidays and day trips. We are supporting the Schools fundraising that day.
Harpenden Spotlight on Africa
Harpenden Spotlight on Africa is a partnership between volunteers in the UK and Spotlight on Africa Uganda Foundation, delivering projects in the Mbale region of Eastern Uganda.
Help Musicians
Help Musicians has been providing support and opportunities to help musicians at all stages in their lives for almost 100 years. Offering health and welfare services, development funding, research, a mental health helpline and a hearing health scheme, it aims to tackle anything that would bring musicians’ careers to an untimely end. In the time of COVID it has been a lifeline for many of the UK’s professional musicians.
Herts Young Homeless
On 8 Dec Aldwickbury School is raising funds for Herts Young Homeless and we are supporting them. HYH offers advice, mediation, floating support, and education services to make a real difference to the lives of 16-24-year-olds in the local community who are homeless or threatened with homelessness.
Great Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) is one of the world’s leading children’s hospitals.
Luton Food Bank
Launched in April 2013, the Luton Foodbank provides emergency food supplies to local people in crises and in poverty. It consists of local organisations and volunteers striving to ensure that no one in the town goes hungry.
Mudlarks Community Garden
Mudlarks is a Hertford based charity which supports adults and young people with learning disabilities and mental health issues. Through supported learning and meaningful work in the community, Mudlarks’ projects help people build confidence and self-worth, and develop important skills.
Music for my Mind
Music for my Mind raises awareness of the positive effects of music for people affected by dementia. By developing cost-effective technology, they aim to give dementia patients, their families and carers quick, easy access to personalised music playlists, wherever and whenever they’re needed.
Parkinsons UK
Parkinson’s UK aims to improve the quality of life for people affected by Parkinson’s and find a cure for the condition.
Rennie Grove Hospice Care
Rennie Grove Hospice supports and cares for patients in Bucks and West Herts diagnosed with life-limiting illnesses in their homes and offers Day Services at Grove House.
Royal National Lifeboat Institution
RNLI saves lives at sea through lifeboat search and rescue, lifeguards, water safety education and flood rescue.
Save the Children
Save the Children works to make sure that help is given when children need it most. They have appeals running for Coronavirus, as well as appeals running in Yemen, Syria and in response to the Beirut explosion. Whether children are at risk due to conflict or natural disasters, they make sure they are there to provide all they can to ease their suffering and help them to recover.
St Albans & Hertsmere Women's Refuge
Emergency accommodation, advice and help for women experiencing emotional, physical or sexual domestic abuse, with an outreach service which involves the Support team being able to go out and meet women to offer help and advice.
Tender
Tender is an arts charity working with young people to prevent domestic abuse and sexual violence by promoting healthy relationships based on equality and respect.
The Daylight Club
A social club for adults of working age with physical disabilities living in St Albans District (which includes Harpenden and London Colney). The club offers social contact and community involvement plus a wide range of creative or recreational activities, of useful or interesting topics covered by speakers, and of trips in its own minibus.
The Harpenden Trust
The Harpenden Trust helps local people in need, individually and collectively through its Care Fund. It also benefits organisations, charities and community groups within Harpenden through its Community Fund.
The Hospice of St Francis
The Hospice of St Francis in Berkhamsted provides free, expert care and support for people living with life-limiting conditions and their loved ones and carers, across West Herts and South Bucks.
The Human Milk Foundation
The Human Milk Foundation is working to help more families feed their babies with human milk. They provide screened donor milk to sick, premature babies in NICUs, and to mothers with cancer and other conditions.
The Woodland Trust
The Woodland Trust is the largest woodland conservation charity in the United Kingdom concerned with the creation, protection, and restoration of native woodland heritage. It has planted over 43 million trees since 1972.
Frequently asked questions
In your purchase confirmation email, you will receive a link to all the videos published so far.
All of the profits from calendar sales and additional donations will go to the charity you choose. The Lea Singers are keeping nothing.
If you would like to pay by making a bank transfer or posting a cheque, please email [email protected] for details of how you can do this.