The Christmas Doors of Teddington 2015

Christmas Doors of Teddington

The Christmas Doors of Teddington are 24 miniature doors located around the town during Advent, mostly in shops. Each conceals a picture associated with the Christmas story. This gives an extra dimension of excitement to Christmas for children (and their parents/carers) as they search for these miniature doors all around the town.

For 2015, the doors were 'open' from Thursday 26 November until Christmas and could be visited in any order. The list of the shops and other places with Christmas Doors in 2015 is posted below. These shops with doors also had a stock of the leaflets (picture at left) which included a map showing where to find the shops with doors.

Those on the search had to visit each of the 23 shops where the doors were hidden, find each door, and get a sticker on their leaflet from each shop. They were then able to visit the last door and collect their Christmas treasure from Teddington Baptist Church. The doors are tiny, and they had to look very hard to find them but over a hundred children completed the task in 2015!

Clck to see what happened in previous years with Christmas Doors: 2013 and 2014.

Places with Christmas Doors in 2015
  1. Fine & Country, 9 Broad Street
  2. Budgens, 31-33 High Street
  3. Happy Potter, 14 Broad Street
  4. The Loft, 16 Broad Street
  5. Teddington Photographic, 17 Broad Street
  6. Fabric House, 1 Broad Street
  7. Vidatherapy, 6 Church Road
  8. K C Pharmacy, 23 Broad Street
  9. Sims Opticians, 4 The Causeway
  10. Fun Factory, 14 The Causeway
  11. Tax Assist, 76 Broad Street
  12. Cavan Bakery, 42 Broad Street
  13. Cavan Bakery, 111 Stanley Road
  14. Johnson's Shoes, 60-62 Broad Street
  15. Cavan Bakery, 25 High Street
  16. Stepping on Out, 7 The Causeway
  17. Snellers, 74 Broad Street
  18. Quality Grocers, 124 High Street
  19. Moores Cycles, 214-216 Kingston Road
  20. Sidra Patisserie, 5 Church Road
  21. Teddington Osteopaths, 146 Stanley Road
  22. Milestone Residential, 43 High Street
  23. Urban Suburban, 8 Broad Street
  24. Teddington Baptist Church, 17 Church Road
Christmas Door
place mouse over picture above to see the door better

Background Notes
The idea of the Christmas doors originated from two separate sources. The first was the Living Advent, an export from Stockholm which has now run for two years in Henley-Upon-Thames. This scheme involved twenty-three local businesses putting on a display or entertainment of some kind in their shop doorway/ window at 6.15pm from 1st - 23rd December. On 24th, the final 'door' was opened in the parish church.

The second inspiration for the Christmas Doors of Teddington came from the town of Ann Arbor in Michigan USA. In 2005, one or two small 'fairy doors' began appearing in shops around the town (see the Fairy Doors of Ann Arbor). There are now lots of them, and tourists travel from miles around with their children to visit them.

The Christmas Doors of Teddington is a joint venture by Teddington Baptist Church and Teddington Business Community. The doors were beautifully crafted by local toy company Le Toy Van and were then prepared and decorated by volunteers from Teddington Baptist Church.