City’s Christmas fun will now be cut short

Christmas festivities will run for around half as long as usual in a bid to stop people getting bored of the Black Country’s city’s seasonal attractions.

A reindeer parade, circus, street performers, Charles Dickens re-enactment and city centre choral concert are just some of the activities which have been lined up for Wolverhampton.

An eight-ton stage is set to be brought in for the festive celebrations after council bosses vowed to make the city sparkle with an action-packed programme over four days in December.

Costumed characters will parade around the streets, the sky will be light up with fireworks displays and visitors will be able to walk through a Christmas farm area during the festivities.

A Christmas market is set to be held over four days before the activities start.

Around £100,000 will be ploughed into the festivities and council chiefs are desperate to make them the best the city has seen, following claims that the traditional 14-day Christmas market ran for too long and left people feeling bored.

Exact details of the attractions which will be transforming the city’s streets over Christmas are still to be finalised but it is believed the festivities could focus around Market Square and the Civic Centre piazza.

Regeneration chief, councillor Paddy Bradley, said: “You name it, we will have it.

“We are still finalising all of the activities so nothing is set in stone yet, but we have a lot of things lined up that we are really excited about.

“Having a market on for 14 days was far too long and so we will be shortening the length of the festivities and packing each day filled with attractions,” she added.

Councillor Malcolm Gwinnett, said: “There is going to be so much happening.

“The bulk of the attractions at Christmas before have been the market and we want to make it much better than that this year.

“There will be four days which will be totally action-packed with activities.”