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This year's Christmas lights in St Peter Port have all been paid for, with more areas being lit up thanks to extra generous sponsorship arranged by local businesses.
The bulk of the lights are being paid for through the fundraising efforts of Jax Robins and her supporters who have been feeling festive all year as they focused on raising the money.
She said: "after a busy few months, and a bit of panic for the final few weeks, St Peter Port Christmas Lights Charity successfully raised enough funds to cover this year’s festive display. A BIG THANK YOU to all who enabled this."
Pictured: Jax Robin (centre) found lots of support for her fundraising campaign again this year.
With the money raised so far this year, the St Peter Port Christmas Lights Charity has replaced lights and infrastructure in Mill Street, Mansell Street, Upper Mansell Street and Contree Mansell, as well as replaced lights for the ones damaged in Smith Street by last December’s storms. Three arrays have been refurbished to replace the faulty ones in Le Pollet along with some extras for Le Bordage and as spares.
Thanks to a grant from the Channel Islands Christmas Lottery funds raised in 2017, the Church Square Canopy will also be renewed this year. Guernsey Electricity has been carrying out any necessary repairs to the electrics.
New for 2018, there will be lights in Quay Street and a Nativity Scene outside the Town Church, which has kindly been sponsored by the Skipton Community Fund. Thanks to a late partnership with Fujitsu/Sigma, Le Bordage will also be lit up this year.
Pictured: Robert Sillars of Sigma and Jax Robin watch as the lights go up in Le Bordage.
The support from Fujitsu and Sigma means Le Bordage will be lit up this Christmas for the first time in 15 years.
Mrs Robin said: “in September we reluctantly took the decision not to light Le Bordage due to a shortfall in donations. This was obviously extremely disappointing for the community, therefore we were delighted when Fujitsu agreed to provide funding, which means everyone in Le Bordage will now be able to enjoy the festive lights.”
Duncan Tait, Senior Executive Vice President, Fujitsu, said, “As a global company, Fujitsu wants to bring the best technologies to Guernsey, from our experience of implementing them around the world. We believe this will allow Guernsey to unlock a world of opportunity - today, tomorrow and beyond.”
Robert Sillars, CEO at Sigma, said: “The Christmas Festival lights display is a great spectacle for the whole community and we are delighted that our partner, Fujitsu, has made it possible to extend the lights to Le Bordage. The festival provides the perfect opportunity to enjoy some festive entertainment and enable everyone to share the Christmas spirit”.
Now the lights are going up across St Peter Port, attention will be turning to the big switch on, on Saturday 1 December.
Father Christmas will be visiting as normal, with the festivities moving from Church Square to Market Square this year. Mrs Robin said; "Now all the hard work has been done, we hand over to YBG who with their Sponsors SURE will co-ordinate the Santa Switch-On on Saturday 1st December in Market Square. We will look forward to seeing you in town on the day, look out for our stalls where we will be selling various light-up items for the children all at £2 each and having our collection buckets. All funds raised during Switch-On will go towards next year’s festive display."
A number of other public events are planned for central St Peter Port this year, with Le Petit Train doing rides to see the lights, and the first Accessible Town Evening on Monday 3 December from 17:30-19:30. There will be entertainment, refreshments and shopping available, especially for people with disabilities, their carer’s and their families. The main focus will be around Market Square and Town Church with extra Blue Badge parking arranged in town.
Businesses are invited to take part in the Decorated Town Business Christmas Window Competition which is being reintroduced for 2018. It used to run annually until a few years ago and Mrs Robin said they thought it would be good to revive it.
"During December a small team of judges will go round town and decide which business window deserves the trophy for 2018."
Pictured top: St Peter Port will be lit up brightly again this Christmas.
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