Christmas Lights Switch On

It's years since I've been to watch the Christmas lights switch on in our little town. We used to take Daniel and Eleanor when they were little but when Eleanor joined the youth theatre group, their big show of the year, which they performed in one of the Leeds theatres, always coincided with the event so we stopped going. The switch on for this year was last night and Mick and I decided that we'd go to see if it had changed at all.

We're lucky that we have some wonderful, independent shops here and most of them go out of their way to be involved in community events. The shop windows are looking very festive at the moment. This is the Post Office window, they won 1st prize in the Christmas window display competition.

This is the display in the window of our local flower shop.

A fabulous coffee shop and delicatessen, they've got baubles in their window.

This is the local undertakers, I just love what they've done with their windows.

There was a small funfair with a big thrill ride and hook a duck stall etc.

Many of the shops stayed open and some of them set up stalls selling their wares from there. I love this American school bus which was selling pizza and hot beverages.

No event would be complete at this time of year without the main man in red dropping by in his sleigh.

Our local radio station, Radio Aire, was there and there was entertainment throughout which was provided by the community choir, the local dance school, the secondary school band and one of the primary schools, amongst others. The special guests were the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Leeds, the Olympic bronze medalist, Katy Marchant, who's a local girl, and Leeds Rhinos mascot, Ronnie the Rhino.

Unfortunately, the switch on didn't go to plan and only half the lights worked, Blackpool Illuminations it was not.

There used to be fireworks after the switch on in previous years but many people were disappointed to find there were none this year. Instead, funding was given for a two day market to make it in to a weekend event. There were some lovely craft stalls and I may have made a small purchase. I couldn't resist this hand-painted mug.

How cute are the cats, linking their tails in to a heart.

It was a shame that there was a mishap with the lights and that lots of people missed the fireworks this year but it's a lovely event for the community to come together and nice to see local businesses making an effort to be part of it.