In retail, Christmas unofficially starts on November 6th (the night after Guy Fawkes)  but it is a gradual  escalation of stock, music and tinsel so that by December 1st it is in full swing.

The Morley lights switch-on starts officially this coming Thursday, but wandering through town this afternoon, as dusk approached, we were surprised to see the ones on the side of the Town Hall were lit.

We were also slightly surprised to see a couple of well known local characters erecting a banner on the building- for something being held elsewhere in the Town.

The signage that was lit was new, which is just as well as the one from last year was a bit poorly.  The new one is somewhat plainer, with just a couple of bells instead of a fairy. Also, the Morley bit looks detachable. (Maybe it might say North Sea Region Division 43 one day). Unsurprisingly, in this day and age, restitution of the C word (or even the X word) in the wording has been avoided. We wouldn’t want to offend any invisible frienders, would we?