37 nostalgic pictures that show Christmas celebrations in Chichester city centre through the years

In 2008, there was a shock when hundreds of the Christmas lights in the city centre failed – with some popping off like champagne corks. There was even an outside chance of having no festive lights at all that year after tests revealed problems.

But the suppliers replaced about 450 of the 4,000 bulbs, at a cost of around £9,000, and the big Christmas lights switch-on was able to go ahead. Shoppers packed into the city centre on December 2, 2008, for festive fun, with two real reindeer at Chichester Cathedral and a fabulous Christmas parade, led by Snow Queen Hayley Woodward.

In 2009, there was another explosion of light but this time it was fireworks, bursting over Chichester Cathedral on December 4 to mark the Christmas light switch on. Hundreds of children had their photos taken with real reindeer.

But it was a different story in 2010 – a bleak year for Chichester. Chichester City Council was responsible for the lights display but because of funding problems, it famously didn’t happen that year.

The three Rotary clubs of Chichester arranged for a Christmas tree and lights, and the Cathedral was floodlit, but that was it, as the Dean of Chichester Cathedral, the Very Rev Nicholas Frayling, announced. "We haven’t got any Christmas lights in the city because times are hard and we all understand why this hasn’t happened," he said. However, shoppers braved the bitterly cold weather for a candlelit procession from Priory Park to the Market Cross to see the tree lights turned on.

There was more drama in 2011, when the return of the Christmas lights saw the switch-on event proving too popular for its own good and organisers said it could be changed in the future – or not happen at all.

Thousands of people packed into the city centre to watch the new lights being switched on by actor Simon Callow at the Cross on November 26, 2011. Complaints were made about crowd control as there was simply no room to move.

Town clerk Rodney Duggua said it was expected that numbers would be up on previous years due to the new lighting display but, having worked in Chichester for 33 years, he had never seen so many people gathered together.

The irony is that in 2012, the planned Christmas lights event was cancelled due to the weather and strong winds put an end to hopes of festive fireworks. It would have been the first major event for the City Centre Partnership’s Business Improvement District (BID) initiative and 750 business premises had contributed towards it.

Despite bad weather, more than 48,000 people took to the streets of the city on Saturday, November 24, 2012, and the mayor quietly switched on the lights at 5.30pm, following the tree blessing by the Dean of the Cathedral and Chichester’s three Rotary clubs.

Thousands of people have been turning out to Chichester Christmas light events ever since, with revellers pouring into the city to get a glimpse of the festivities each year, except, of course, in 2020 due to Covid.