Stockton Heath's Christmas in the Park is on Sunday 29 November in Alexandra Park, with 25 stalls, choirs and Santa. No promoted lights switch-on this year.

Quick answer: Stockton Heath’s Christmas event this year is Christmas in the Park, on Sunday 29 November 2026 in Alexandra Park, finishing at 6pm. It is a Christmas market with 25 stalls, a stage, a brass band, choirs and Santa. There is no formal lights switch-on at the park, and the parish council has said it will not promote a switch-on date for the Victoria Square tree this year. Last year’s switch-on in the square was on Sunday 30 November 2025 at 4.30pm.

Everything here comes from Stockton Heath Parish Council’s own published papers, read on 6 October 2026: the minutes of its Village Committee on 21 July, and the Deputy Clerk’s reports to the committee’s meeting on 29 September. The council has not yet put out a poster or a running order, and says those will follow. We will update this page when it does.

Christmas in the Park, Sunday 29 November

The parish council’s Village Committee confirmed the date of 29 November at its July meeting, and agreed to market it as a “Christmas Family Festival”. The 29 September report sets out the plan:

What the parish council has published
Date Sunday 29 November 2026
Where Alexandra Park, Stockton Heath, on the tarmac play area
Finish “The event will end promptly at 18:00hrs”
Start Not yet published. Traders arrive from 11.30am
Stalls 25, mainly artisan food and crafts, plus charity pitches
Entry No charge has been mentioned in any of the papers

What is on. A stage with a sound system and lighting, a brass band, a joint school choir, an adult choir from Thelwall and performances from local groups, introduced by a compere, Councillor Kevin Gillibrand. There is a small tea-cup fun fair ride for young children. Stockton Heath Rotary is providing Santa and his sleigh. The Friends of Alexandra Park will open the Pavilion tearoom, and Stockton Heath Primary School’s PTA will run a stall and children’s activities. The July minutes record support for a raffle for charity, with local traders offering prizes.

The lighting. There is “no intention to have a Christmas tree or formal light switch on within Alexandra Park”. Instead there will be festoon lighting between the stalls and uplighters on the trees around the edge of the site.

Drink. Two of the stalls will sell festive drinks, including beer, wine, mulled wine and Baileys coffees. Everything is served in plastic, with no glass on site, and traders must run Challenge 25. The council has applied to Warrington Borough Council for a temporary event notice.

First aid and toilets. St John Ambulance is providing first aid cover. Two portable toilets are being hired as well as the Pavilion’s own.

The Victoria Square tree and lights: no promoted switch-on

The main tree in Victoria Square, and the trees for the village’s charity shops, come from Tim Stansfield as in other years, paid for by the parish council.

What is different this year is the lighting. A group of local donors, organised by Dilys Peake, has offered to pay for uniform soft white lights on the main tree and on the borough council’s trees in the square. The parish council accepted the offer, subject to the borough council agreeing the specification. The coloured lights used on the main tree in 2025 will not be used.

The borough council has told the parish its team can only fit Christmas lights on the Sundays before Christmas, and that each tree takes about half a day. The 29 September report ends with the line that matters for anyone planning a visit: “There will not be any promotion of the ultimate switch on date.” So, unlike 2025, do not expect an advertised ceremony in the square. The lights will simply come on once they are up.

The borough council is also testing the existing lights in Walton, by Whitefield Road, at St Thomas Church on London Road and in Pilling Gardens. It has said it cannot refit any broken lights at St Thomas Church this year.

Culcheth and Glazebury: 2026 dates not announced

Culcheth and Glazebury Parish Council runs its own switch-ons. On 6 October 2026 it had published nothing for this year.

  • 2025: the parish council announced on 13 September 2025 that Culcheth would switch on on Saturday 29 November and Glazebury the following Saturday, 6 December.
  • 2024: the Culcheth switch-on was on Saturday 30 November at the Millennium Gardens beside the Co-op, with carols with the choir from 4pm and the lights on at 4.30pm.

The pattern points to a Saturday at the end of November, but that is a guess, not a date. We will add this year’s when the parish council publishes it.

For Warrington town centre’s own switch-on, which Warrington BID ran in Golden Square last year, see our Warrington Christmas lights switch-on page. Lymm’s big day is Lymm Dickensian Day.

Parking and getting there

Alexandra Park is a short walk from the village centre. The parish council says both village schools will open their grounds for traders’ parking, to keep vans off the residential roads around the park, and it is writing to the houses next to the park about parking arrangements. It has not mentioned any visitor parking.

The nearest public car park is The Forge on West Avenue, WA4 6HW, the main Stockton Heath car park. It is free all day on Sundays, so on 29 November it costs nothing, but it will fill. Our parking in Warrington page has the detail.

No road closure for the festival has been published. Coming from Warrington town centre you cross the Ship Canal on the London Road swing bridge, which can swing for shipping, or the Cantilever Bridge. Our roadworks and travel page lists planned closures and how often the bridges stop traffic.

What we will update

  • The start time and running order, when the parish council publishes them
  • Whether the event is free to enter
  • Any switch-on date for Victoria Square, if one is announced after all
  • The Culcheth and Glazebury switch-on dates

All Christmas events across the borough are on our Santa’s grottos, Christmas market and what’s on this month pages.

Sources