Kids in London – High Street Christmas Fair and Winter Workshops

For many Londoners, the official start to the Christmas season is when their local High Street organises some sort of celebration to mark the turning on of the Christmas lights. I attended just such an event last night in Whitton, the fourth largest town in the London Borough of Richmond of Thames.

The local business association (WBA) had organised a fun run a few weeks ago to start to get the local community together with a fund raiser so that the event could be extra special. So the traffic was diverted and the local people reclaimed their High Street for the evening. The mild weather encouraged people to leave their homes and there were thousands of families, teens, kids and dogs assembled in the centre of town.

At one end of the High Street was a bar in a tent – a good start for the grown ups. And outside was a carousel practically mobbed by diddlies wielding light sabres and glow sticks. There were some stalls here selling polka dot bunting, Christmas decorations and festive hats. Those manning the stands appeared well fortified with cups of steaming mulled wine. The village feel to proceedings was enhanced by another stall selling plants and flowers as well as a couple of animal rescue charity stands offering knitted goods, clothing and bags. The teen girls looked happy as these were close to jewellery and make-ups stalls.

Peckish folk were well looked after – there were numerous BBQs serving burgers and hot dogs, and Ellis the Butchers offered a hog roast. There were at least two areas where samosas and pakoras were doing a brisk trade and the kids were supporting the candy floss, crepes, donuts, and waffles stands whilst their parents tasted the chestnuts. All the cafes were full with people happily chatting away. I also spied Gipsy Marie Lee in case you wanted a foretaste of what the season had in store for you. The local flower shop had a tent outside where families waited patiently in line for a trip into Santa’s Grotto. I bought a copy of a local history book – Whitton Brook – from the Borough of Twickenham Local History Society.

Then there was a stage and disco – supported by the RFU (well, Twickenham stadium is only 10 minutes’ walk away). I am sure that Radio Jacky – our local station – had been on an earlier slot but the loud music as we passed was most definitely in the street genre as a group of women demonstrated a rather energetic Zumba class. Actually, we took a leaflet and may very well start the inevitable New Year “get slim” campaign by dancing with them.

We spied some panto characters in the crowd – Captain Jack Sparrow, Captain Hook and an elf, and Snow White (we didn’t understand why it was a bloke). We must have missed the Mayor who usually makes an appearance at these events.
Action Bikes had a huge inflatable Santa outside. This N That had a fabulous light display and all the local schools – Bishop Perrin, Heathfield and Chase Bridge – had stalls offering sparkly cup cakes, jars of home made jam and Design a Badge activities.

I met Bridget, the town centre manager, who was promoting a new “Whitton Wednesdays” discount scheme and she told me about a fabulous scheme for kids called “The Emporium”. With help from local estate agents who had made available a large empty retail unit, The Outer London Fund and Design for London they are running drop-in workshops (Wednesday to Saturday 10am-5pm and Thursday 12-7pm) where kids can have a go at mono printing, cyanotype portraits, sewing and knitting creations, pinhole camera, camera obscura, lithographic and lino printing. My daughter took a leaflet and is working out when she can get along.

As I strolled along to inspect the brand new Lidl store I saw a tombola offering “Free alien ball” to all participants and watched a few good throws at the basketball hoops to try to win a large fluffy toy. There were kids squealing with delight on the spinning tea cups and the swinging chairs and there was a large, good natured queue near the inflatable slide. At The Admiral Nelson pub there was another BBQ and I gave into the temptation and bought a glass of mulled wine. Lovely.

At Just Dance I was delighted that they had in stock a large pair of tap shoes (a not so secret Christmas present now!). Back on the stage they were awarding prizes for those who competed in the fun run – a first dog prize and the fastest runner who turned out to be the local postman. After a couple of disco numbers the crowd of toddlers cheered loudly as the Dusty Does Disco team got on stage. Group dancing followed.

And in case you were worried that the true Christmas spirit was lost, there was a woman dressed as Mary on a donkey being led about and the churches of Whitton (of all denominations) had a joint stand where they gave away their Christmas services flier and served mulled wine. I seem to remember that last year there were live reindeers and a rather splendid brass band playing carols – they were sorely missed this year.