Farnborough hosted a three-day Christmas Market from the 3–5 December which took place under the iconic hangar frame on Heritage Square. The market was open daily from 11:30-18:30 with a different line up of stallholders each day. There were ten stall each day and ranged from festive homeware to sheep skins rugs to eco friendly baubles. Each stallholder displayed their fantastic range of gifts in Christmassy German style huts. Occupiers were delighted with the Christmas market which offered them the opportunity to get some Christmas shopping done without having to face the manic high street on a weekend.
The Christmas festivities didn’t stop there, we also held our annual Christmas Light Switch on Tuesday 3 December where infant students from the local primary School, Towerhill, joined us to turn the lights on and treated us to a carol concert. One of the students also won a competition to design our Christmas tree topper and was rewarded with £40 of High Street Vouchers.
There was also free hot chocolate from Aviators café to keep occupiers warm as they browsed the stalls and a free face painting stall for occupiers’ children who joined them after school and work. Local volunteers from Farnborough Sixth Form College also come to site to offer a gift-wrapping service to raise funds for a local charity.
And if that wasn’t enough to get our occupiers in the Christmas sprite, we also hosted our annual Wreath Making Workshop on Thursday 5 December. 100 occupiers joined us to take part in the workshop where they were able to get creative and design their very own Christmas wreaths to proudly hang in pride of place on their front doors.
These festive activities raised just under £1000 for The Community Matters Project which will go towards projects and volunteering to support young people in our local community.
