SSIB and Super Stony Stratford Switch-0n-Day!

Forget Black Friday – think super, Stony Stratford Switch-on Saturday! The SSIB group always enjoys participating in this annual Stony institution when the town is filled with colourful stalls, and at 5pm, after the magical lantern parade, the spectators gasp with delight as the bewitching, beautiful and brilliant Christmas lights come on. We all know that a huge amount of work by the Christmas Lights team has gone into that fabulous Christmas transformation – this year they had to contend with icy, gale-force winds as they put the lights up, so we’re hugely grateful to that team. (A number of SSIB volunteers double up as Christmas Lights volunteers too!) They are, of course, the best Christmas lights of any town anywhere!

The Business Association kindly lets SSIB sell Stony Stratford Calendars at our Switch-on table each year, and this allowed us to make over £200. In addition to calendars, we also had exquisite lavender bags to sell made by Sue Jones with SSIB lavender collected from the perennial beds; and delicious quince jelly made by Mary Sarre – and from these sales and donations made another £50 for SSIB funds.

It’s not just about fund-raising though – the Switch-on Day allows us to publicise what we do and sometimes to gather in new volunteers. And not even chill wind and drizzle can dampen our enthusiasm for the day!