Join us to celebrate a special visit from Santa and the start of the Christmas season on Saturday 30th November 2024!
Santa will be keeping warm in his grotto, specially built in Sedgefield Parish Hall’s Fletcher Room, from 12pm onwards. Across the morning, Santa will greet 96 children, double check they are on the nice list and leave them with a little gift to remember the experience. Tickets are £3 and can be purchased now from the council offices now. Slots are every 2 minutes from 12-3:24pm. This sought after experience sells out very quickly, so drop by fast! We can’t reserve tickets without payment so if you can’t get to us during opening hours (9am-12pm), it’s best to see if someone else can pop in for you. Siblings/cousins/friends can visit Santa at the same time, just book their slots one after the other and let us know to call them in together (multiple children going to the grotto at once will combine their time e.g. 3 children together will get 6 minutes with Santa, but still require a ticket each).
We’ll also have a face painter and bouncy castle in the Parish Hall’s main hall, free of charge (no Santa ticket required) to keep the little ones busy while waiting for Santa or other events in the town. Sedgefield Youth Club will be once again selling some Christmas cakes, tray bakes, biscuits and more from the main kitchen in Sedgefield Parish Hall, all freshly baked by the club in advance. All proceeds from the bake sale go directly to the club 🙂
From 1pm, you will find some incredible stalls inside Ceddesfeld Hall selling a range of festive goods from soap, jewellery, Christmas decorations, cards and more. Alongside the craft fayre, which ends at 3:45pm, Sedgefield District Uniformed Services Group will be providing refreshments from the kitchen and a range of delicious baked treats beside the stalls. Ceddesfeld Hall bar will be open between 1pm and 6pm – drop in after the light switch on to warm back up again.
The carol service in St Edmund’s Church begins at 3:45pm (this is a little earlier than some previous years, but this will be the time every year now!). Residents and visitors are welcome to take a seat from 3:15pm. With no Christmas tree festival on this year we aren’t as limited for space but still try to get there early to get a good seat!
Once the carol service concludes, there’s be plenty of time to make your way down to the Turning Circle ready for the switch on of the town’s Christmas lights. To be in with a chance of pressing the big button, make sure to purchase a glow raffle ticket from the council offices or from the two local primary school offices (flyers will be making their way round pupils after half term). Raffle tickets are £1 and come in the form of a glow stick wrapped in a raffle ticket. You can buy as many as you’d like but make sure to bring them with you when the Mayor picks the winning raffle ticket at 4:25pm!
We are hoping for another very successful event this year, so fingers crossed for good weather and a safe journey for Santa. We’ll post updates here and on our Twitter account @SedgefieldTC if there are any weather disruptions or other event updates.