SHOPPERS are being urged to ‘Win Your Christmas’ by taking part in a Northampton town centre Golden Ticket giveaway.
Four lucky winners will each win £500 of vouchers as part of the £2,000 prize fund, simply by hand-posting an entry ticket into special post boxes in shops and businesses in the town centre.
The Golden Ticket campaign, organised by Northampton Town Centre Business Improvement District, aims to encourage people to ‘shop local’ this Christmas and support Northampton businesses, with the added incentive of a prize to spend in town centre shops and businesses of their choice.
BID operations manager Mark Mullen said: “After a difficult 18 months or so we are all looking forward to spreading a bit of festive cheer this Christmas and our Golden Ticket giveaway is the perfect way to put smiles on the faces on four lucky families.
“The competition is a key component of our Christmas campaign and we cannot wait to see thousands of people enjoying a host of activities as our town centre is transformed into a Winter Wonderland.”
West Northamptonshire and Northampton Town Councils’ Christmas lights will be switched on in the Market Square today (Saturday, November 20). The BID has funded additional Christmas lighting on lampposts and streets including St Giles Terrace and Wellington Street and around All Saints Church.
No festive season is complete without a visit to Father Christmas and families with children up to the age of ten can visit Santa’s Grotto in Grosvenor Shopping Northampton at the switch-on and then 10.30am-4pm every Saturday and Sunday in December up to Christmas, as well weekdays from Monday-Thursday December 20-23.
West Northamptonshire Council’s Frost Fair is back in the Market Square between 11am and 4pm on November 28 along with a parade, giving shoppers the chance to pick up some extra Christmas gifts and to celebrate the town’s creative makers, artists and traders.
Northampton BID is calling on businesses to ‘get festive’ with their window displays and get the town centre looking its absolute best for Christmas.
Businesses will be competing to turn their shop windows into a winter wonderland full of festive cheer, before an independent judging panel and a public vote on Facebook decide the winners.
A 24-hour Christmas radio station dedicated to Northampton will be hitting the airwaves this December. Operated by NLive Radio and sponsored by the BID, the digital station will be playing back-to-back Christmas songs from within the University of Northampton, Grosvenor Shopping and multiple town centre retailers, with businesses able to provide a free ten-second sound clip to be played.
Northampton Town Council’s augmented reality trail ‘A Christmas Story’ will launch on November 28 via the Explore Northampton app. Children can follow the trail around ten town centre locations to see a life-sized Father Christmas appear on their smartphone.
The town council’s stage in the Market Square will feature live performances and roaming street entertainment between 11am and 3pm on Saturdays throughout December.
The festive programme has been compiled by the BID, Northampton Town Council and West Northamptonshire Council.
For more information, and details of how to book for Santa’s Grotto, visit www.discovernorthampton.co.uk