Sarah Mayhew Craddock gets all set for the start of the Christmas Light Festival

However one chooses to celebrate Christmas it very much feels like a time for new life in all shapes and forms.

It’s a time when people come together and celebrate one another, celebrate the fact that they’re rubbing shoulders, celebrate existence. Jolly knitwear, creative activity, twinkling lights, mistletoe and gift-giving all make for wonderful fuzzy-feelings at this heart-warming time of year.

To my mind there’s no better night in Oxford’s annual social calendar than the night that the lights are turned on in the city centre; and Oxford Christmas Light Festival marks the days of the year when town and gown come together and Oxford really is United. This year Christmas Light Festival activities will commence at 5.30pm today and continue until 4pm on Sunday.

This year will see several significant changes to last year’s Oxford Christmas Light Festival, giving the participating organisations a real opportunity to shine from the inside out. There will be lanterns galore but no lantern parade; there will be more than 20 venues throughout the city offering free activities but no main stage; there will be no temporary road closures (could Oxford accommodate any more?) and no market stalls during the festival; but Oxford Christmas Market will open on December 11 and run through until December 21.

The most inclusive of the many happenings making up Oxford Christmas Light Festival are Day of Song, taking place at venues across Oxford on Sunday, and the Young People’s Light Installation, taking place on the University Museum’s Lawn outside Oxford University Museum of Natural History and Pitt Rivers Museum from 21 to 23 November.

Building on the success of Day of Song 2013, Day of Song 2014 is a one-day musical event that will see more than 700 singers from schools and community choirs across Oxfordshire share their talents as individual choirs and then gather to perform a grand finale in Oxford Town Hall at 5pm on Sunday. Day of Song event producer Cat Kelly, 33, said: “The voice is meant to be shared, and singing really brings people together, it’s uplifting. The choirs have selected some great songs, making the event something that anybody of any age can enjoy and join in with.”

The Children’s Light Installation project has seen six pupils from six schools (Bayard’s Hill, Cheney School, Wood Farm, John Henry Newman, Rose Hill, Cutteslowe, and The Blackbird Academy Trust – comprising Pegasus, Orchard Meadow and Windale) work with artist Nikki Gunson and the Oxford University Museums to create larger-than-life artworks based on artefacts in the museums’ collections. A towering T-Rex, a giant sleeping dragon and a huge hot air balloon are among the installations that will enchant visitors to the Light Festival. Christine Simm, board member for culture and communities, commented: “The installation project is giving Oxford’s children a unique opportunity to investigate Oxford’s heritage and create something larger than life from that inspiration.”

Any bold visitors up past bedtime tonight might also be interested in immersing themselves in an atmospheric Arctic soundtrack while exploring the Museum of Natural History and Pitt Rivers by torchlight in their Northern Lights experience from 9pm to 10pm.

Visitors to the light installation between 4.45pm and 5pm on Saturday will enjoy a shimmering performance of Starburst and Snowflakes, produced by Oxford Youth Dance with Cecilia Macfarlane and the Ark T Centre, in which 25 dancers will be illuminated against the dramatic architecture of the University Museums.

If all of this creative activity sparks your imagination there is a free drop-in intergenerational lantern-making day in Oxford Town Hall on Saturday between 10am and 3.30pm, offering the opportunity to make a little lantern to take home and to contribute towards the creation of a large-scale lantern that will later be exhibited in the Town Hall’s lantern exhibition. Alternatively, or additionally, there’s an opportunity to watch art being made or make your own to take away as part of Artistic Takeaway in Gloucester Green on Saturday and Sunday.

For a festive theatrical treat families might like to head to Fusion Arts to participate in Shadowplay and Light Workshops, to Pegasus Theatre for a performance of Princess and the Pea, or to Gloucester Green to contribute towards a production of The Knowledge Emporium Show put on by Oxford Playhouse.

These are only a few of the free, fabulous, festive activities that Oxford Christmas Light Festival is offering up this year, and just as Dr Seuss wrote in How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, it would seem that “Christmas doesn’t come from a store, maybe Christmas, perhaps... means a little bit more”.

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