On Thursday, the 20th of November, Orpington's Christmas celebration took place. It was organized by the Orpington 1st bid company and was a complete success. The event lasted for 3 hours starting at 16:00 and it was free of charge to attend. Hundreds of people showed up and enjoyed the stalls and rides that were put up along the road. A magnificent fireworks show was the highlight of the evening and many say that it was "a highly enjoyable night."
There were lots of attractions for the children to enjoy as well, a merry-go-round, a helter skelter and many more fairground rides. There was also an opportunity to meet Father Christmas and his 12 reindeers, this was very popular with the younger children and had a long queue all night! There was also the beautiful Lantern Parade. The fireworks display lasted for approximately 10 minutes; red, yellow, green, blue and every other colour of the rainbow lit up the sky. To say the least, it impressed the attendees.
When interviewed, a family stated that the Orpington's Christmas celebration "really kick started Orpington's Christmas spirit, the event was family friendly, catered to the children, had a large range of stalls to visit and so on. I think that everyone had a lovely time."
Peijun Zhao
