West Bridgford Christmas Lights: Sat 21 November, 5pm

West Bridgford’s Christmas lights switch-on is on Saturday 21 November 2026. Rushcliffe Borough Council announced it on 1 October under the name it now uses for the whole day, the West Bridgford Christmas Countdown.

• Midday to 7pm, free.
• Indoor festive market at Lutterell Hall, Church Drive NG2 6AY, midday to 7pm.
• Central Avenue festivities from 2pm, with food and drink stalls and performances by local schools and community groups.
• Lights switched on at 5pm by the Mayor of Rushcliffe, Cllr Richard Butler, with what the council calls “enhanced festive illuminations”.

Updated 3 October: the council has now confirmed the date and times. This page previously said the 2026 date had not been announced.

The council’s Christmas page carries the same details and is where the full programme should appear. No stage running order, stall list or road closure notice has been published yet.

What has changed from 2025

The day starts later and finishes later. In 2025 it ran 11am to 6pm, the Lutterell Hall market ran 11am to 4pm and Central Avenue opened from midday. In 2026 the market is open midday to 7pm, three hours longer at the evening end, and the outdoor stalls open at 2pm. The 5pm switch-on is the one fixed point.

So if you only want the market, you no longer have to go in the morning: it stays open two hours after the lights come on.

When it has been held

The event has been running since 2000, according to Rushcliffe Business Partnership, which calls it the marker for “the start of Christmas seasonal trading in West Bridgford”. It has landed on a Saturday in the second half of November every year we can document:

• Saturday 18 November 2023. Named by the council in its lower noise fireworks release of 31 October 2023.
• Saturday 23 November 2024. Dated by trentbarton’s diversion notice, which closed Central Avenue from 3pm on Friday 22 November to 6pm on Saturday 23 November.
• Saturday 22 November 2025. Confirmed in the council’s one week to go release of 14 November 2025.
• Saturday 21 November 2026. Announced 1 October 2026, seven weeks out, far earlier than the one week’s notice of 2025.

One warning if you go searching yourself. The council deletes its old switch-on stories. Four earlier announcements still show up in search results, and all four now return 404 on rushcliffe.gov.uk. Only the November 2025 page survives, so most of what a search engine offers you about this event is a dead link. The 2026 announcement is the one to trust.

What the day looked like in 2025

Until the 2026 programme is out, last year’s is the best guide to the acts and attractions. From the council’s own 2025 release:

• 11am to 6pm, free entry, no ticket.
• Outdoor festivities along Central Avenue from midday, with food and drink stalls.
• An indoor festive market at Lutterell Hall, Church Drive NG2 6AY, 11am to 4pm, which was new for 2025 and ran regardless of the weather.
• The Mayor of Rushcliffe’s countdown and the lights switch on at 5pm.
• Santa’s Grotto, face painting and an inflatable ice hockey game run by the National Ice Arena, which supported the event for a fourth consecutive year in 2025.
• Costa Coffee West Bridgford was the 2025 lead sponsor.

Two stages ran in parallel. Lutterell Hall had the Plumtree Voice Ensemble at 11.45am, Nottingham High Infant and Junior School at 12.30pm and the St Edmund Campion Year 3 and 4 Choir at 1.30pm. Central Avenue had Plumtree Juniors at 12.20pm, Nottingham High at 1.30pm, the St Edmund Campion Year 5 and 6 Choir at 2.15pm, the Sandra Taylor School of Dance at 3pm and Matt Chapman playing live at 4pm and again at 5.30pm.

Note the council’s own timings do not agree with each other. The body of the 2025 release says the switch-on is “at 5pm”, while the Central Avenue running order in the same release lists “4.45pm, Countdown to Christmas Lights Switch On and illuminated finale”. Both were marked “subject to change”. The 2026 announcement says 5pm again. If you are bringing children for the switch-on itself, be on Central Avenue by 4.30pm.

Are there fireworks?

Probably, and quiet ones, but the council has stopped using the word.

Rushcliffe adopted a low-noise fireworks policy in 2021 and said in October 2023 that it would use “low noise but no less spectacular fireworks at its Christmas Lights Switch On event in West Bridgford”. Rushcliffe Business Partnership describes the day as ending with “the lights switch-on at 5pm, followed by a low noise firework finale”.

The 2025 programme, however, calls the 4.45pm slot an “illuminated finale” and does not mention fireworks anywhere, and the 2026 announcement talks only of an “enhanced illumination show” and “festive illuminations”. Treat fireworks as unconfirmed: the council’s own words for 2026 point to a light show instead.

The road closure and the buses

Central Avenue closes to traffic, and it closes for longer than the event runs because the stalls and the stage have to be built and cleared.

• 2023: closed from 5pm Friday 17 November to 8pm Saturday 18 November.
• 2024: closed from 3pm Friday 22 November to 6pm Saturday 23 November.

Both windows come from trentbarton’s own travel alerts. No 2026 closure notice has been published yet. With stalls now running to 7pm, expect the closure to run at least to Saturday evening; we will add trentbarton’s notice when it appears.

Three bus services lose the Central Avenue stops in both directions while it is shut: mainline, the cotgrave and rushcliffe villager. In 2024 they diverted via Bridgford Road and Rectory Road, with a temporary stop on Bridgford Road. In 2023 passengers were sent to the Co-op stop or Tudor Square instead. Check trentbarton’s travel alerts page on the day, because the advised alternative stop has changed between years.

Driving in is the hard way to do this. The borough car parks fill early on switch-on Saturday and the charges still apply: see our parking in West Bridgford page for what each car park costs and where the £30 penalty starts. Anything else shut that weekend will be on our roadworks and travel page.

Bingham has a date, and it is Friday 27 November

If you want a Rushcliffe Christmas event you can actually put in the diary today, it is in Bingham. Bingham Town Council’s events listing gives the Christmas Fayre as Friday 27 November 2026, posted on 1 September. No times, stalls or road closures are published yet.

The fayre has fallen on the last Friday of November each year and it closes roads in the town centre when it does: the council advertised temporary closures for Friday 28 November 2025 and for 29 November 2024. Expect a similar notice in early November.

West Bridgford’s Saturday 21 November comes six days before Bingham’s Friday 27 November, so you can do both.

What is confirmed and what is not

Sources: Rushcliffe Borough Council news area and Christmas page, Rushcliffe Business Partnership, trentbarton travel alerts. 2026 details checked on 3 October 2026.