Santa Claus brings Christmas to Town

Monday 1st December 2008, 2:29PM GMT.

THE festivities reached fever pitch on Saturday when Father Christmas switched on the lights in Town.

People were lining the barriers in Church Square by 4pm in readiness for the big event.

Festive Decor chairman Martine Ellis thanked everybody who had contributed to the £33,000 that had been raised to ensure a display for this season.

‘Given the current financial climate we were very nervous, but the people of Guernsey have done us proud by putting their hands in their pockets again,’ she said.

New lights have been fitted in various parts of Town, including around the Markets and Mill Street and a new canopy adorns Church Square.

Blue flashing lights and a siren preceded Father Christmas’s arrival in a fire engine at the former brewery at Les Echelons, where hundreds of people were waiting to meet him.