CHILDREN from the Crediton area have been busy making or designing a new hat for Santa and some of the entries are now available for people to see in Crediton High Street shop windows.

Crediton Town Council’s Christmas in Crediton sub-committee, which organises the Christmas trees and lights to decorate the town, has organised the annual competition, which this year was to design a new hat for Santa.

Normally children take part in a fancy dress or best mask competition but because of the current restrictions, the competition has been adapted.

There are some great prizes to be won and the judges will soon be busy making up their minds who the winners are.

Some of the hats and Christmas theme window displays have now been put in place in the shops which were previously Kathea and Town and Country, by kind permission of the shop owners.

The stars are up on shop and business fronts and the giant Christmas tree arrived in the Town Square this week, kindly put up by Roger Lee of Sandford, who supplied the tree and Roger Pennington, who used a tele-handler to put the tree up.

In addition, Jo Ward has begun putting up the Christmas lights at St Lawrence Green and the cross-street lights have already been put in place.

The placing of the trees on shop and business fronts has been delayed due to the current lockdown situation. It is hoped that this will be possible in early December.

NO PUBLIC SWITCH-ON

No public Switch-On event is planned this year, also due to the pandemic.

Chairman of the Christmas in Crediton committee, Town Councillor Liz Brookes-Hocking, said: "Sadly, we won’t be able to go ahead in the same way as last year but we have lots of plans, further details of which will be released in the very near future.

"Thanks to everyone coming together each year we have been able to organise fantastic lighting displays and our main Switch-On event is usually attended by thousands of people.

SHOP LOCALLY

"We have co-ordinated the town Christmas lighting for many years to encourage people to shop locally for their Christmas presents each year.

"This is why we normally hold our Switch-On event at the end of November to give people time to visit our valued traders for all their present shopping.

"Last year we put up 130 trees and stars in the High Street and in other areas.

FREE FOR TRADERS

"Normally we have asked our traders for a contribution towards our lighting fund but thankfully, due to savings from paying for the parade and from the due diligence of the committee, and because of the generosity of a few sponsors, I am pleased to say traders taking part in our scheme will not this year be asked to make a contribution.

"We hope that this saving will be a big boost for our traders and help sustain them at this critical time."