All you need to know: Inverness Christmas lights switch-on
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COUNTDOWN to Christmas in the Highland capital officially gets under way on Sunday as Santa arrives to help Provost Helen Carmichael turn on the festive lights display in Inverness city centre.
The excitement will build up from noon in Falcon Square when the Eastgate Shopping Centre’s Window Wonderland – so named following the announcement of a new sponsor partnership with the Cairngorm Group – opens featuring chair swing rides for children and Alpine huts selling an array of gifts and goodies from bratwursts to cheese, chocolate and Christmas gifts.
After parking his reindeer on Falcon Square, Santa is scheduled to meet youngsters in his Beauty and the Beast Grotto inside the Eastgate Shopping Centre before making his way to nearby Crown Primary where he will be joined by the Provost and STV’s Nicola McAlley who will be hosting the Torchlight Procession down Stephen's Brae to the High Street.
The sale of the torches will raise funds for the Inverness Highland Games.
After all the marchers are lined up behind the City of Inverness senior and youth pipe bands the torches will be lit at 5.45pm and the procession will head for the High Street where the Christmas lights will sparkle into life as the procession passes each section by at 6pm.
The procession will end outside Inverness Town House when the historic building’s Christmas 2019 colour scheme will be revealed for the first time.
Following the illumination of the town house, Santa and the Provost will lead families along Church Street for a very special carol service Ding Dong Merrily Old High which will start at 6.30pm in the Old High Church.
Motorists are asked to note that temporary traffic closures will be in operation on Sunday evening as the procession makes its way from Crown Primary to the town house passing along Kingsmills Road, Stephen’s Brae, Eastgate, High Street, Castle Street and Bridge Street.
