Abergavenny was a flurry of festivities on Saturday as the community gathered to witness this year’s Christmas light switch on.

The magical evening was topped by a guest appearance from none other than Santa Claus, who managed to find time in his extremely busy schedule to visit the children of Abergavenny.

Cllr Tony Koniczny commented on the event, saying “The Christmas Light Switch on was a huge success bringing surprise and delights to the huge crowd who turned up for the event. We had four separate areas to turn on the lights and each area had choirs to entertain the crowds. We were very lucky to persuade Father Christmas to make an early visit to Abergavenny to see our Christmas lights and check that all the children have been good! He was delighted to see so many happy smiling faces.

The Mayor would like to thank Father Christmas for giving us his time so generously and pay tribute to the choirs for entertaining us. We owe a debt of gratitude to the stewards from the Town Council, Rotary, Round Table and the Police Cadets for marshalling the crowds and keeping everybody safe. Matt Lane provided the festive music and a spectacular snowstorm outside the Town Hall to cap the proceedings in a very festive fashion.

Finally, thank you to all the mums and dads, grans and gramps, boys and girls who came out to support this wonderful festive event.”