Follow the Star - O Little Town of Bethlehem was commissioned by the Church of England as part of the 2018 Follow the Star campaign.

The first time an Advent and Christmas campaign from the Church spanned digital, print, traditional press and broadcast in terms of promotion and awareness.

More than 120,000 copies of Church House Publishing’s #FollowTheStar booklet were sold – 50% more than the figure for #GodWithUs in 2017. The reflections written by Revd Dr Isabelle Hamley, chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury, were very positively received and widely used in print, the CofE app and Alexa.
The partnership with BBC Sunday Worship and Daily Worship resulted in millions of people hearing the #FollowTheStar reflections.

A Church Near You received more page views than 2017 - up from 1.5 million to 1.66 million, with 79% of visitors telling us that they found it helpful, very helpful or extremely helpful to find a service or event.

The O Little Town of Bethlehem Christmas carol was a major success – used by Classic FM on social and radio and played on BBC Radio 2.

More than 50,000 items sold through the online store – bookmarks, booklets and flyers were particularly popular. The Night of the Stars events in Canterbury and Durham were popular and helped encourage churches to put up stars and share pictures on social media.