Friday 30th November 2018 saw the Village Lights Switch On, and despite the threatening weather, a fantastic crowd of about 150 gathered around the centre of the Village.
The evening started with Father Christmas arriving from Staunton Fields having completed a village tour. As his sleigh had some technical problems, an army vehicle decked out with brilliant flashing lights was used, with Santa waving enthusiastically from the back of the vehicle.
Then after just one practice countdown, Santa switched on the lights in the Millennium Garden. One of the large Christmas trees was kindly donated by Whitehall Garden Centre, Norton Lane, and the other by Whitchurch Village Fete Committee, to whom we are both very grateful.
After Santa had crossed the A37, he then led a procession of children, parents and onlookers towards St Nicholas Church, where the children of Whitchurch Primary School sang some lovely ‘Christmassy’ songs from a stage that had been set up in the Church grounds. The children, including the soloists, were brilliant as always.
New for this year was the re-siting of the choir to provide a better view of them from the audience perspective, better sound equipment and a snow machine that seemed to go down well with the crowd.
The Salvation Army then played some well-known carols, and the crowd sang along before going into the Church Hall for mulled wine and mince pies, provided by Tesco Brislington and also by some local ladies who made some delicious mince pies. Father Christmas was also very busy handing out sweets to all the children.
Our thanks go to all of you who attended this lovely festive event. The support of the public, our villagers, and the wonderful choir and staff from the Primary School is really appreciated.
Our appreciation and acknowledgement of the support we received also goes to:
The Salvation Army, Bedminster
Tesco Brislington (donation of mince pies and chocolates)
Whitehall Garden Centre & Fete Committee (Xmas tree’s in Millennium Garden)
Lee Gillam who helped our volunteers to decorate the Christmas trees.
The volunteers who helped with the refreshments in the Hall.
The traffic marshals who helped set up the event and ensured safe passage to people crossing the A37.
Matt on the microphone and John, who arranged and set up the sound equipment
And of course, Father Christmas and his driver, who made a special effort to visit us at a very busy time of the year!!!!!
Thanks to your donations, we collected £150.00 for The Children’s Hospital, Grand Appeal.
Next year the Whitchurch Village Christmas Lights switch on will be on Friday 6th December 2019….so please put this date in your diaries now.
If you have any ideas on how we can improve the event do please let us know.
In the meantime, everyone at the Village Council wishes you all a Very Happy Christmas
