For the past 6 years, ScratchBuilt in association with Basingstoke theatre company Proteus have created an immersive Christmas experience for younger children and their families; transforming their home at the Creation Space into an enchanted festive walk-through adventure.

However, with the ever changing restrictions around the pandemic, and many families needing to shield, the team have approached Christmas 2020 in an innovative way.

The result is Your Christmas Needs You, a magical and immersive adventure where young children and their families become the heroes of their own story, and help Mrs Christmas and her trusty elf to save Christmas along the way.

The team worked hard to create two versions of the show

One will be am in-person show, tailored for a household/ support bubble of up to 6. In addition, other family members can be zoomed into the show, so they can also experience the magic too. The other option will be a zoom- only version of the show that will have all the elements of the in-person experience (fully live and bespoke), but the performers will be interacting directly with their audience on the screen.

Becky Kitter of Scratchbuilt said: “Our in-house Christmas show has become a long-standing tradition for many local families and this year it was more important than ever to do something special and ensure that we could still bring a bit of Christmas magic to our communities. Despite what many might view as potential barriers, we are embracing the opportunity and challenge. Christmas is NOT cancelled!”

The initial release of dates sold out in just over 10 minutes with all but one of the bookings being for the ‘in-person’ version of the show.

Even i before the pandemic, the show has only been made possible through the assistance of public funding from the Arts Council and local authority. It has always been Proteus’ objective to keep ticket prices as affordable as possible when many other alternatives can prohibitively expensive for many families, all whilst keeping the high quality of a professional festive show. Subsequently, even at full capacity, the ticket income does not cover the cost to make the show and the company says that this is just one example of why funding for the arts is so vital.

Mary Swan, artisitic director, said: “ At this incredibly difficult time, the ability for families split apart by the pandemic to experience a little magic together is vitally important.

“This work is only made possible by the funding we receive from our local authority partners at Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council and Arts Council South West; without this we could not create this work or support the many artists we work with on a daily basis.”