Join us (and Santa!) on Saturday 2nd December for lots of fun, food and entertainment!
The day begins with entry to St Edmund’s Church’s magical Christmas Tree Festival from 10am. Take your time wandering around the 30+ trees designed and decorated by local organisations, groups and businesses with this year’s theme ‘Christmas Around the World’. The Mayor’s tree will be adorned with decorations made by pupils at Sedgefield Hardwick Primary Academy and Sedgefield Primary School, so keep your eyes out!
From 12:30pm, Santa will be keeping warm in his grotto, specially built in Sedgefield Parish Hall’s Fletcher Room. Across the morning, Santa will greet 84 children, double check they are on the nice list and leave them with a little gift each. Tickets are £3 and can be purchased now from the council offices. This sought after experience sells out quickly, so enquire fast! We’ll also have a face painter and bouncy castle in the 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 the night before. 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’s very own Pop In club will be providing a range of delicious refreshments and treats. Ceddesfeld Hall bar will be open between 1pm and 7pm.
The carol service in St Edmund’s Church will start a little earlier this year. Residents and visitors are welcome to take a seat from 3:30pm onwards, with the service beginning at 3:45pm. The service always feels extra special when surrounded by the Christmas tree festival, however, this does mean there is limited seating in church. With a capacity of 150 (including Santa and his elves!), be sure to get there early to secure a seat.
Once the carol service concludes, there should be plenty of time to make your way down to the Turning Circle ready for the snowman parade and 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). Tickets cost £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. You can see the full poster above, or the individual activity posters below:
