Clitheroe Christmas Festival 2015

Even with the torrential downpours, the Clitheroe Christmas Festival was anything but a washout!

Organised by members of Clitheroe Chamber of Trade and Commerce, they decided to go ahead despite another local Christmas Fair having to cancel due to the great British weather.

Daniel Williams, president of Clitheroe Chamber of Trade and Commerce, said ''The weather was awful, but we rearranged a few things and battled on and the day does go down as a success. Everyone who braved the weather enjoyed the event and the idea was to bring people into town shopping and if ever there was a day we needed that, it was this Saturday! I'd like to thank the whole team for all their efforts and everyone who came to support us on the day.''

The festival featured a visit from Father Christmas who was seen arriving on a train from Blackburn and Olaf, the much-loved snowman from the Disney film Frozen.

Entertainment was provided by a range of singers including Grace Davies, Arthur Geldard and Xanthe and James. Also braving the weather were Clitheroe Ukelele Band who performed close to the Rose and Crown pub on Castle Street, where refreshments in the form of a hog roast, mulled wine and mince pies were served.

The Atrium Cafe at Clitheroe Castle was home to Santa and his grotto for the day and Britain's Got Talent star Ella Shaw was in fine voice to sing Santa on his merry way at the end of the day.

The annual Walking Nativity from Clitheroe Parish Church to the crib at the castle gates was once again led by Rev. Andy Froud, who commented ''We thought long and hard about cancelling the Walking Nativity due to the dreadful weather. The alternative would have been to re-enact the story of Noah. As it happened, an amazing number of families appeared so I'm glad we kept to plan. I'd like to thank the team from the Clitheroe Chamber of Trade for all their hard work and for keeping the faith!''

Local pupils from St James's CE Primary School in Clitheroe and St Mary's RC Primary School in Langho provided carol singing throughout the day.

Favourite Christmas Tracks Revealed

A recent survey of the most popular Christmas tracks played in shops, nightclubs, pubs and hotels has shown vintage songs to be top of the list.

Music licensing body PPL, state Band Aid's Do They Know it's Christmas (2014) topped the chart, with The Pogues' Fairytale of New York in second and Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas is You in third.

Contemporary tracks only creep in, on the back of marketing campaigns such as John Lewis's Christmas advert in 2014 which pushed Tom Odell's version of Real Love into the chart at number nine.

The PPL most played Christmas tracks are:

1. Do They Know It's Christmas? (2014) - by Band Aid 30
2. Fairytale of New York - by The Pogues featuring Kirsty MacColl
3. All I Want For Christmas Is You - by Mariah Carey
4. Driving Home For Christmas - by Chris Rea
5. Last Christmas - by Wham!
6. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday - by Wizzard
7. Merry Xmas Everybody - by Slade
8. Merry Christmas Everyone - by Shakin' Stevens
9. Real Love - by Tom Odell
10. Wonderful Christmas Time - by Paul McCartney

What's your favourite Christmas song?

Mine has to be Fairytale of New York by The Pogues - although, I'm a sucker for them all!

Christmas in Numbers

This festive season will see us Brits consume more than 6,500 tonnes of Christmas pudding across the country in November and December, 500 times the weight of Big Ben, and this is just in hotels alone!

Britain's leading purchasing company Beacon, have found consumers will be served around 507 tonnes of turkey every day during November and December, alongside 9.9 million chipolatas and 500 tonnes of stuffing. In addition to the traditional festive turkey, hotels are also expected to serve more than 312 tonnes of fillet steak a day, showing that turkey may not always be the most popular choice.

Just Christmas week alone, this equates to 3,550 tonnes of turkey, 69.6 million chipolatas, 2,18 tonnes of fillet steak and 350 tonnes of stuffing. Joining turkey and fillet steak on our Christmas menus this year is pork, which saw a rise in popularity last year by 1.9%.

I wonder how many sprouts the kitchen need to peel?

Relaxing Christmas House Party

It's nice to get away for Christmas - so relax and let us do the work! We always enjoy Christmas as much as our guests - because we always have such lovely people staying. Christmas with us is a relaxing affair - it's about good food, great service, and good company. What it's not, we promise, is a full-packed programme - this is about doing just as much or as little as you wish to!

On Christmas Eve, enjoy tea and cakes in the lounge from 3pm, before a welcome Prosecco reception and dinner. Christmas Day of course is when lunch is the main event and this evening we'll serve a simple buffet supper to round off the day. There's lots of things to do on Boxing Day - you can visit the Wild Life sanctuary right on the doorstep, take a drive out to Blackpool which is only thirty miles away, or simply explore the rich and historic heritage that is Lancashire and of course lots of lovely Boxing Day sales at Boundary Mill. There's a final dinner this evening but of course you can always stay longer - there is so much to see and places to explore!

We have three fully accessible rooms which meet Level 2 standards with Visit Britain, We also have the Gold Award from Green Tourism in recognition of our commitment to the environment.