Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger

Poor Cindeford! Last year their Christmas lights drew the sarcasm of The Daily Mail, with the headline

Are these the worst Christmas lights in Britain? 

 Town forced to wrap fairy lights around lamp-posts after health and safety objected to traditional festive display

It really can't be easy, trying to add some festive spirit to your town centre when you're a cash-scrapped, small town and the only Big Name shop you have to draw in the crowds is the Co-op. But the good folk of Cinderford weren't about to to give up, and so persuaded Gloucester to sell them last year's city lights. For the great Switch On, last night, they laid on a kiddies' fun fair, market stalls and the Forest of Dean's premier Ukulele Group to get things off to a stunning start.

The time appointed for the festivities drew closer, and as it did, the skies grew dark, the wind howled and down came the rain.  Almost devoid of custom, brave market traders did their best to keep smiling.  These two are great, are they not? If you know them, perhaps you could tell them that Angie's trying her best to make them famous!

Thankfully, the Ukes uv Azzard were on hand to lift those dampened spirits, drive away the gloom and herald the imminent arrival of Rudolf and Santa.  Here we are, as recorded on the camera of my ukulele-playing friend Janice...

Believe me, we had to sing and strum vigorously to keep our fingers warm
and a shop across the road did a brisk trade in fingerless gloves!

That's me on the left, pretending to be a reindeer. 

The ladies' section. B (next to me) is playing her kazoo, so we must be
singing They call me Mr Christmas. Should it not have been Mrs Christmas?

Just as we ended our shivering performance, someone turned on the lights. Spirits rose, the streets seemed just a little more populated and a few brave children climbed into giant tea cups, waiting expectantly to be spun into action. Even the rain clouds, sensing that they had met their match, moved on to dump their load elsewhere. I could have stayed to watch, but Gerry's offer of hot chocolate proved far too tempting.