East Grinstead does Christmas rather well, in case you haven’t noticed. Well we would wouldn’t we? The lyrics to the famous carol ‘Good King Wenceslas’ were written by hymnologist and warden of Sackville College, John Mason Neale.

The third of our Wenceslas weeks Christmas event filled the town on Sunday 3rd December. The Christmas Family Festival has been a long tradition in East Grinstead; this was the 23rd year and it didn’t disappoint. London Road was closed to traffic and filled with fun fair rides, charity and craft stalls and the very popular French market. Meridian FM were on hand to play festive music and shoppers were entertained by Nexgen street dance academy, InChoir and Amber Tichener. Silvanian animals and Hula hoop demonstrations and the famous Proffessor Crump were on hand throughout the day.

Father Christmas made an appearance, driven in an open top car with Town Mayo,r Cllr Julie Mockford and the May Queen, and stayed for the day to listen to the requests made by all the ‘good’ children in his grotto.

The next Christmas event to look out for is the High Street ‘Twas the Sunday before Christmas’ on Sunday 17th December 10am to 4pm A Dickensian themed shopping day with traditional costumes, games and treats and who knows, maybe a surprise or two!