Madhouse diaries : Festive delights at dusk

As twilight fell today, I herded the kids on to the bus and we set off into town to check out the Christmas lights. Just next to our bus stop, we discovered that one of the boats in the port had sunk. I actually go past this every day on the bus to work but only see the very top of the mast so I was totally unaware ! 

I took a couple of moody snaps of the dwindling light reflecting off the surface of the water in the harbour but the kids were more impressed with the giant illuminated Mickey Mouse just next to it !

Time for the obligatory twinkly selfie !

Our next stop was the town hall where they had a huge train set laid out, complete with miniature cows, hop fields, policemen, cars and passers-by.

It was interesting enough for a quick ten minute visit but it did make me smile that the people who were most enthusiastic about the whole thing seemed to be men of a certain age rather than the kids !

We did admire their tastefully decorated Christmas tree on the way out though. The local radio station was there and asked Pierre if he'd like to phone Father Christmas and talk to him live on air ... to which he replied no !! He did say yes to helping himself to a sweet though !

 You can tell by how hard Juliette was giggling that this next part was the best bit of the evening.

 A ride through the magic garden of Christmas trees ...

 

... on a sleigh pulled by quad bikes whose riders were dressed up as reindeer. Whoever came up with that idea deserves a medal !

In the middle of the forest was Father Christmas's wooden chalet so we stopped off to say hello and take a photo.

There were also smaller wooden huts dotted about with animated teddy bear displays inside.

 We didn't hang about though as we wanted to see the light display on St Eloi church.

It was a spectacular end to our twilight wander around town and a great way to get into the Christmas spirit now that we're on holiday and seriously counting down the days to the big day !