Hempstead resident, Jonathan Neville (pictured with our Chairman, Esme) has kindly donated a tree that has outgrown its current location but will be given prime place at our War Memorial in November. Check out Jonathan’s informative website at www.norfolkmills.co.uk.

Fundraiser still wanted!!!

We are still without a fundraiser with a £20k target to raise.

The lights switch on may be a single evening, but the lights and decorated trees remain cheerily in place for six weeks till 12th night in January.

All six Committee members are standing in their fourth and final year, serving the local retail and wider public to give Holt this superb winter event. Anyone coming forward to fill our places should ideally shadow us this year to take over next. My role begins in January, obtaining quotes for the contract of communal lighting. I attend monthly Committee meetings, liaise with our contractors, order trees, answer lights related questions from retailers and assist on the switch-on night. All necessary contacts and timescales are already established and laid down in our comprehensively compiled Working Brief.

You’re welcome to visit me at The Tannery in Bull Street to discuss this exciting opportunity to join a well established community event Committee, one that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.

I look forward to working with someone through this year’s event, Sarah Tribe, Lights Liaison and Christmas Trees, Holt Lights Committee.

Manager, The Tannery, Bull Street, Holt

If you feel you have something to offer (and a sense of humour!), please contact any member of the committee by email in person.  Contact details can be found on our Contact Us page.

Help to keep Holt ‘ the brightest and the best’ for Christmas Lights !

Esme Bagnall-Oakeley, Chairman and Duncan Baker, Entertainments Officer

The Holt Christmas Lights Committee were delighted to give two cheques to organisations in the community with the money raised from their collection tins for the 2009 event. The East Anglian Air Ambulance and the Holt Community Centre were the chosen charities.

Alison Heathfield was instrumental in organising the children at Holt Primary School to decorate the collecting tins. Lindsay Furniss (of The Tannery in Bull Street and Lees Yard) spent huge amounts of time distributing over one hundred collection boxes. A grand total of £636 was raised from the tins during the Winter Months with Ladbrokes raising the most.

The Committee warmly thanks everyone involved with this tremendous effort and to the shop owners for displaying the boxes. The total raised was a third more than the previous year.

On Friday 16th April presentations were made to Jess Down of the Air Ambulance by Lindsay in her shop at Bull Street . Also in the picture is Esme Bagnall Oakeley, Chairman of the Committee and Duncan Baker , the Entertainments Officer for the Committee.

Freda Davey , Holt Community Centre administrator and Paula Hewitt , Holt Community Centre Chairman receive their cheque from Esme

Esme has delivered a first rate community event by taking the lead and by encouraging community participation. Under her leadership the Holt Christmas Lights Switch-On has become a major event in the Holt calendar and one which thousands of people turn out to see.

To organise this event involves much work and efforts through out the year and Esme has raised the bar. This is her final and fourth year as Chairman. Esme has devoted an enormous amount of her time to this successful event.

The 2009 Christmas Lights switch on took place on 25th November. Behind the scenes a total of £19,568 was raised by the Committee mainly through local business donations.  Expenditure totalled £22,076, however this did include various repairs to the lights which should not need to be repeated this year.  We carry forward a small positive bank balance of £407. View complete Income and Expenditure 2009 summary (pdf format).

The Committee have started to meet again and are looking forward to lighting up the town for another fantastic night that really puts Holt on the map.  We welcome any help or suggestions for 2010.

Submitted photographs will only be used for the purpose of promoting the Holt Christmas Lights event. They remain copyright to you in every other respect.

Click here to visit the 2009 Photo Gallery

Winner

Byfords for lights outside and seen on the ceiling of the dining area near Francois Bouttier.

Runners up

• People Tree for ivy garlands and general display
• The Kings Head

Best Window

Winner

• Mrs Jones

Runners up

• The House and Garden shop

Special mention for innovation

The Photographers Gallery for mounting a street display of outstanding wildlife pictures set to music,  plus tables and chairs for people to sit and watch.

If anyone has the tree or knows of it’s location, can they contact us or take it directly to the King’s Head at Letheringsett please!

Fingers crossed!

Once again, Edgefield have come up trumps sourcing all our Christmas trees both tall for the communal town spaces and short for those retailers with holders attached to their premises. Despite us putting in our order for the big 25 footers in February, sadly this doesn’t mean that they will grow tall enough come November! However, Edgefield have scoured the East of England and found the best!

F W Woodrowe and Sons – 01263 713183

As in previous years, the second wave of the tree operation sees F W Woodrowe and Sons, our local ‘builders come professional tree positioners’, then advance into the town and safely erect all those large trees, this year, under gale conditions!

C & O Electrical Contractors Limited – 01263 860140

Lastly, the third piece of the jigsaw is completed by our lighting contractors for 2009, C & O Electrical Contractors Limited, as they light the main large trees in the town. A mixture of red bulbs are inter dispersed with the usual LED white lights on the tree down at the War Memorial, each bulb commemorating a name inscribed.