Christmas Lights on Castle Street – Jessica Redland

The one thing that is guaranteed to make me feel all Christmassy is fairy lights. I absolutely love them. There’s something so magical about them that instantly makes me feel warm and fuzzy. Whether we’re talking a small battery-operated set strung across some shelves, a string of 200 on the tree, or a large outdoor display, I can’t get enough of them.

I think this stems from a couple of things from childhood. We used to often travel on Sundays to see my grandparents and other relatives who lived about an hour away and, in winter, this meant driving home in the dark. As Christmas approached, my older brother and I would each look out the car window at the side where we sat and count how many lit-up Christmas trees we could see. They were so pretty and helped build the excitement for Santa Claus’s impending visit. The second childhood memory is visits to Blackpool to see the illuminations. While this was not a Christmas thing – we’d typically visit in September or October – the lights always made me feel Christmassy. Every few years, we visit Blackpool to see the illuminations and I don’t think the delight will ever fade.

Putting up the Christmas tree at home is my favourite Christmas activity and Christmas feels like it has arrived the moment I switch on the lights. We actually have three trees at home which may sound excessive but there’s a reason for it. We have our main tree in the conservatory – placed in there to avoid the cat attacking it and the dog stealing the decorations! Our lounge is at the back of the house and I like to see trees in windows so we have a smaller one in the bay window in the dining room at the front. And, in the lounge, we have a small pink one on a table which my daughter decorates.

I wanted to capture the magic of Christmas lights in my Christmas books, Christmas at Carly’s Cupcakes and Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café. In Starry Skies, Tara struggles with Christmas for various reasons that are revealed in the book. However, she still loves the lights and decorations. Each pillar in The Chocolate Pot has red and white fairy lights wrapped around it and the whole café is decorated with locally-made decorations. Rising early to bake each morning, the first thing she does is switch on the fairy lights to bring a little sparkle and magic to her day.

I created a special event for all the traders on Castle Street: the annual Christmas lights switch-on. There’s a big switching-on ceremony hosted by the local radio station outside the shopping centre but a small event for the traders in Castle Park at the end of Castle Street where The Chocolate Pot and Carly’s Cupcakes are situated. Tara provides drinks and Carly provides cupcakes as the owners of the independent shops and cafés along Castle Street celebrate the start of the Christmas season.

Although the switch-on as I describe it – coming in waves down the town – is purely from my imagination, the lights of Castle Street are inspired by the Christmas lights of Scarborough’s Bar Street. Whitsborough Bay is predominantly modelled on my hometown of Scarborough and Castle Street is a mix of Bar Street and the cobbled streets of Whitby and Robin Hood’s Bay. Bar Street is simply but beautifully decorated with ribbons of white lights from one end of the street to the other. In my books, I imagine the same simplicity but with the lights strung from one building to another “like a ribbon of stars connecting the buildings” (Starry Skies Over The Chocolate Pot Café).

This year, we had a family holiday to Lancaster planned over October half-term, including a visit to Blackpool illuminations. The pandemic resulted in that being cancelled so we hope to visit next year instead but I look forward to nipping out with the family one evening and seeing the lights on in Scarborough instead. Not nearly the same scale but still magical!

Big hugs

Jessica xx

Click on the banner below to see more of Jessica’s books – available in ebook, audiobook and paperback.