Bray’s Christmas lights glow for festive season
SANTA told the boys and girls gathered at the civic plaza last Saturday evening that ‘Bray is the best town in Wicklow’.
With that unequivocal announcement, MC Adam Burke invited the Byrne family on-stage to help turn on the Christmas lights. Orla, Robert, Faye and Olivia had won the competition for the honour.
The celebrations kicked off at 4 p.m. with Christmas karaoke. The words to everyone’s favourite Christmas songs were displayed on a big screen and the hundreds of people attending had great fun singing along.
Lollipops and glow-sticks were handed out to the children, who were eagerly awaiting the most important appearance of the evening - that of Santa himself.
Cathaoirleach of Bray Municipal District, Cllr Steven Matthews, briefly addressed the crowd, welcoming everyone to the start of Bray’s Christmas season.
President of Bray and District Chamber Ruth Donnelly also said a few words, before being encouraged by Adam to sing a few bars. Ruth led the crowd in a rousing rendition of festive favourite ‘Let it Snow’ from ‘Frozen’.
As excitement built, Adam and his band of helpers began to wonder where Santa could be and got everyone to raise their voices for ‘Santa Clause is Coming to Town’. It was the singing that did it, and suddenly, Santa appeared in one of the upper windows of the council buildings.
He made his way down to greet the crowd, to huge applause, and told everyone how happy he was to be in Bray.