Hundreds of families welcomed in the festive season at an annual event which saw a dazzling display of lanterns light up Leamington town centre.

Leamington’s 15^th annual Lantern Parade saw residents and visitors parade homemade paper lanterns through the town for this year’s sparkling spectacular.

Participants created hundreds of lanterns for this much-loved event including traditional Christmas themed lanterns and this year a lot of fish from nemo, sharks and multi coloured fish to their favourite pets!

The evening featured a host of entertainment including glowing stilt walkers and beautiful angels who led the parade along with Santa and music from David Harrop, the Leamington Baptist Church Choir, and Royal Spa Brass and culminated at the Town Hall with a final appearance from Santa and some carol singing.

Alison Shaw, BID Leamington project manager, said: “We would like to thank everyone who joined us for this year’s Lantern Parade to welcome in the festive season.

“It’s always an incredibly popular event which forms part of people’s Christmas traditions which is wonderful.

“Every year we see some spectacular lanterns made for the occasion, with some truly creative designs which delighted participants and spectators.

“Also, we would like to thank our local businesses who support this event and all our wonderful volunteers who work tirelessly year-on-year to make the event such a success.

“It was also a fantastic opportunity to get people into the town centre, and we would encourage everyone to continue to shop local this Christmas.”

BID Leamington has a number of other festive events coming up, including Festive Fun Trails around town running from 01–24 December and Santa visits on 13 & 14 December in Royal Priors, hosted by Royal Leamington Spa Rotary Club.

For more information, visit www.royal-leamington-spa.co.uk