The Mayor’s annual Christmas Party for Abingdon residents took place at the Hilton Garden Inn and was enjoyed by many. Here are two guests heading home with their raffle prizes and goody bags.

Former Mayor Duncan Brown (pictured) acted as compere. The Mayor, Cllr Rawda Jehanli,(pictured), Deputy Mayor, and several town councillors were on hand to help throughout the afternoon.

Entertainment was provided by a choir from John Mason School and performing arts students from Abingdon & Witney College, both of whom also took part in the Extravaganza at the weekend. There was good food, and the Hilton Garden Inn generously provided the room for the occasion. The party was for residents over a certain age.

The new notice board on the Market Place displayed its first posters today, with different notices on each side. It is hoped this will help make local events better known.

The Mayor’s Christmas Party for Over-75s takes place on Thursday 4 December at the Hilton Garden Hotel, though it is probably too late now to get tickets, which were distributed through the Abingdon Information Centre.

On Saturday 6 December, there will be a Craft Market on the Market Place — one of the events that usually relies on its own lamp-post advertising rather than the town notice boards.

Also on Saturday 6 December, in the Roysse Room, Eben Lark will be selling their mix of vintage, home, and garden decorations and furnishings.

At 3.30pm on Saturday 6 December, the Abingdon Concert Band will perform Christmas Day in Concert at St Helen’s Church. Tickets are £10/£8, with under-12s free.

At 7.30pm on Saturday 6 December, the Thames Vale Youth Orchestra will give a concert in the Yolande Paterson Hall at St Helen & St Katharine’s School. The programme includes Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld Overture, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnole, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 (Pathétique). Tickets are £12/£10, with under-16s free.

On Sunday 7 December at 2.30pm, Pavlova Winds will perform Paul Reade’s Cinderella Suite and Jim Parker’s Mississippi Five as part of the Abbey Chamber Concerts series at St Nicolas Church. Tickets cost £12.

On Monday 8 December at 5pm, The Abbey Cinema will show the documentary Rhino, following its collaboration with One Planet Abingdon. The film explores efforts to save one of the world’s most endangered species.

On Tuesday 10 December at 7pm, the Amey Theatre will present a live screening of The Nutcracker from the Royal Opera House — the classic Christmas ballet featuring Tchaikovsky’s music and Julia Trevelyan Oman’s designs.

Laser lights from the Abingdon Bonfire & Fireworks 2025 at Dalton Barracks were visible behind Abingdon School.

The event included a large funfair and bonfire, a laser show set to music,

and a firework display — some of which I caught while cycling through Shippon.

Abingdon has marked Bonfire Night for centuries. In the 17th and 18th centuries the town’s celebrations were simple, neighbourhood events: a bonfire to burn the guy on a patch of common ground to commemorate the failure of the Gunpowder Plot.

Today’s combination of lasers, music, and fireworks would have been unimaginable to our forebears. And what would they have made of holding the celebration ten days after 5th November? Firework displays have moved to weekend dates, with large organised displays, and complicated traffic-management plans.