In pictures: The spectacular Leamington Lantern Parade lights up the town

Hundreds of families welcomed in the festive season as a dazzling display of lanterns lit up Leamington town centre.

Leamington’s 13th annual Lantern Parade on Sunday (December 3) saw residents and visitors parade homemade paper lanterns through the town for this year’s sparkling spectacular.

The much-loved event had an optional ‘magical creatures’ theme, with participants creating lanterns based on dragons and mythical creatures, rockets, stars and planets, as well as traditional snowmen and Christmas trees, and lanterns inspired by their favourite animals.

The evening featured a host of entertainment including stilt walkers who led the parade, and music from David Harrop, the Methodist Choir, Royal Spa Brass and The Sambassadors of Groove, and culminated at Leamington Town Hall with an appearance from Santa and carol singing by the Christmas tree.

The Lantern Parade, organised by BID Leamington, is inspired by ‘The Lights of Leamington’ event, which lit up Jephson Gardens from 1951 to 1961.

Alison Shaw, BID Leamington project manager, said: “We would like to thank everyone who joined us for this year’s Lantern Parade to welcome in the festive season.

“It’s always an incredibly popular event which forms part of people’s Christmas traditions which is wonderful.

“We had some spectacular lanterns made for the occasion, with some truly creative designs which delighted participants and spectators.

“Also, we would like to thank our local businesses who support this event and all our wonderful volunteers who work tirelessly year-on-year to make the event such a success.

“It was also a fantastic opportunity to get people into the town centre, and we would encourage everyone to continue to shop local this Christmas.”

BID Leamington still has a number of other festive events coming up including Santa’s Post Box located on the Lower Mall in Royal Priors, Christmas Angels adding some sparkle to the town centre on the weekends and a lovely 12 Days of Christmas themed window trail.

For more information about these Christmas events visit www.royal-leamington-spa.co.uk