Turning on of Southwold Christmas Lights

 We had such a lovely day yesterday! It was one of those cold, bright, winter days- an ideal day to start to thinking about Christmas. We went first to The Christmas Market at The Cut at Halesworth and made a good start on our Christmas shopping.
For those of you who don't know about The Cut it is a thriving centre for arts in the community and offers music, theatre, dance, comedy, cinema, workshops and art exhibitions to the local area.It also hosts a renowned Christmas Market , held over a weekend throughout the building. Makers of all kinds, display their wares. Amongst others we met
ElaineNason,  https://elaine-nason.co.uk)
Mandy Walden ( https://www.mandywaldenartistprintmaker.co.uk/) and
Brie Harrison (https://www.brieharrison.com),
all of whose work we greatly admire. As you can imagine. we managed to solve a few of our Christmas gift problems.
After a delicious  lunch in the bustling  cafe  we set off for nearby Southwold to share the festivities of a street market in the 'closed for traffic' High Street,  leaving the car  on the off road parking space at Chestnutt Cottage.
A good move as it turned out. Parking in Southwold was very busy indeed and we enjoyed our winter's afternoon walk along Gorse Lane and the 'Gorse Lane tunnel' to Mights Bridge,before crossing the road at the roundabout  by The Blyth Hotel to walk on the hedged path towards the stalls on the 'now pedestrianised' High Street.
Two friendly  little reindeers were the centre of attention. I hadn't realised how furry their antlers were!
Music was played and choirs sang - till at 5pm ,the Mayor of Southwold, Matthew Horwood, and  David Burrows, the new Town Crier,  gave the news from the Town Hall Balcony,that Santa Claus would soon be arriving. The crowd cheered.  Santa then led the count down to the Switching on of the Southwold Lights  and ,on the count of 1, on went the  Southwold Lights  and to the singing of 'Away in a Manger' Christmas for all of us sharing this celebration had properly begun.

Southwold Christmas lights Ceremony

...5,4,3,2,1 The Lights are switched on