By Henry Green
Visitors to Nottingham say they’re feeling festive after the Christmas celebrations launched with the return of the city’s Winter Wonderland.
Christmas in Nottingham started when Lord Mayor, Cllr Carole McCulloch (Lab) pressed the plunger alongside her granddaughters to turn on the Christmas lights at Winter Wonderland.
The lights turn on, in Old Market Square, took place Thursday, November 14, but the facilities launched unofficially a day earlier.
Nottingham’s Winter Wonderland is ranked as the fifth most popular Christmas market according to a recent nationwide study.
The market offers Yorkshire pudding wraps, duck fat roast potatoes, melted raclette cheese and traditional German bratwurst at the markets – as well as other foods, too.
It will remain open for the rest of the year.
The city hasn’t had a full city Christmas lights switch on since 2017 with the city since switching to a smaller scale switch on after financial troubles in recent years.
The Lord Mayor told Notts TV said: “I put the lights on with my two grandchildren who love doing things like this.
“I’ll be coming down here with my other grandchildren, everybody comes to the winter wonderland in Nottingham.
“We’re all about Nottingham, investing in Nottingham and investing in our communities.”
A Nottinghamshire couple said they’re “definitely” feeling Christmassy after the lights switch on.
“It feels wrong, we have a thing about not being Christmassy before December,” they said.
“We’re here to have fun, eat food and skate around,” they added.
One Nottingham resident said: “I’m feeling very Christmassy, I’ve come down the market got my Yorkshire pudding wrap, it’s feeling really nice to be honest.
“We celebrate much later usually so it’s nice to celebrate a bit earlier this year,” he added.
James Mellors Sr – a director of Nottingham-based The Mellors Group which runs the Winter Wonderland – says the current Christmas facilities are great for the city.
He added: “This market is all made here in Nottingham, every building you see in the Winter Wonderland is all made by Nottingham people – and that makes me proud..
“We’ve been a leader and things have happened in London – but we started it here in Nottingham, and that makes me proud, as I’m a Bulwell lad.
“It livens the city up and we get people come down, they have a look at the shops and make a day – or a weekend of it – and that’s so nice because we’ve got all the live entertainment and skating in the city centre.”
