The Oxford Caledonian Pipe Band led the parade at today’s Christmas Extravaganza in Abingdon.

Organised and funded by Abingdon-on-Thames Chamber of Commerce, with volunteers, the day  was sunny, and brought in large crowds to Abingdon.

Father Christmas was accompanied by the Abingdon Lions. They will also accompany him round the estates of Abingdon from the 4th to 17th December.

Maleficent has been showing at The Abbey Cinema in Abingdon. She had escaped from the cinema screen and was there in the parade. The Abbey Cinema also had a stall on the Market Place featuring another Disney Film – Frozen 2.

Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council were there in full regalia, led by the Mace Bearer.

Bath Street was closed to traffic during the Extravaganza. Along Bath Street were fair ground rides for children, stalls selling food, crafts,

and lots of Community Groups, including Abingdon Rotary,

and Friends of Radley Lakes.

At the end of Bath Street were some donkeys from the Donkey Sanctuary.

The Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers elected Layla Moran to be Maid of the Mill. Layla was the MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, and is hoping to be re-elected . The Morris Dancers danced round Layla for a couple of minutes then lifted her in the air.

At St Ethelwold’s House Oxfam had their own Santa’s Sleigh with reindeer. St Ethelwold’s had Oxfam stalls, coffee and cakes, and music.

Members of the Abingdon Community Orchestra were crammed into the office performing carols. Last year they were forced to squeeze in there because of the rain. This year they did it from tradition. (Play the video and see if you can identify the carol.)

Abingdon Baptist Church were holding their own Christmas Fair, and had benefited from removing the pews and replacing them with easy-to-move seats.

St Nicolas Church still has half their pews with a flexi space at the back. They had tombola, raffle, and were selling lots of things. At the front were performances by the Abingdon Community Choir among others.

On the Market Place there were many more stalls and a Santa’s Grotto. Martin was there as official photographer. He is seen here with Joanna Page, Welsh actress and comedian, best known for her role as Stacey in Gavin & Stacey. I am looking forward to the Christmas Special reunion. Martin will have lots of photos on Facebook of the Extravaganza.

The Market Place also had a stage where groups performed during the day. This group sounded good.

Large crowds were there at six when Joanne Page turned on the Christmas Lights. This was followed by some super splendid fireworks.

The crowds then made their way home under the Christmas Lights.