Romsey At Christmas

The Christmas festivities kick off with the winter carnival in early December, featuring a parade of lanterns made by the local children. Here it is wending its way up Bell Street as it heads for the Marketplace.

This view comes from the annual Santa rescue (December), where the fairground attractions add to the rhapsody of light playing around the buildings. The white hulk of the old Corn Exchange in particular glows with the myriad hues.

And just to its side, Bradbeers department store competes for attention. Even without the fair it is bedecked with festive lights that bring a magic to the dark December evenings.

And all that activity is enough to create quite an appetite. Luckily we've found a refreshment stall, albeit with quite a queue of hungry and thirsty people waiting to be served.

I enjoyed painting this one for the play of light around the stall, the silhouettes in front and the darkness beyond.

It can't be Christmas without at least having a look at the tree lit up in the marketplace. This is the one time of year that Lord Palmerston's statue is overshadowed - and when it is best seen - as a silhouette! Is that an angel I see, or just a small child whose hair is backlit by a passing car's lights?

And if Christmas is your thing, what better than a night at the theatre to see the local am-dram group performing their pantomime.  The plaza theatre was built in true art deco style, and is best seen lit up in the evening, and particularly when there is a show on.