No ‘Bah, humbug’ here!

HUNDREDS of people thronged Thame town centre on Friday, to launch Christmas in Thame with a Dickensian touch.  Children’s voices, lantern light, thrilling dance and a dastardly pantomime step-mother, all contributed to a splendid evening of festive cheer and entertainment.

Introduced by the Mayor of Thame, Peter Lambert, BBC EastEnders actress, Anita Dobson pressed the big red button to illuminate the very fulsome Christmas tree covered in twinkling, blue lights, with a countdown from the crowd.  

 One of the most popular stalls proved to be that manned by a contingent from Thame’s twin town of Montesson, in France, who provided hot, freshly made crepes, French wines and cheeses and other typical products from the region. One of them took time away from the stall to meet two of Thame’s firefighters sporting Victorian fireman’s uniforms in keeping with the Dickensian theme of the evening.  

 As well as dozens of stalls selling hot pork rolls, handmade scotch eggs and other fresh food snacks, and warm drinks to keep the spirits up, there was plenty to keep the children happy from rides in a Victorian, horsedrawn carriage to a sit-upon model steam engine. 

Snow White and her wicked stepmother, along with the rest of the cast of this season’s Thame Players’ Production, gave a taster of the panto fun to be had round the corner at The Players Theatre, for the coming week.

Pupils from the three Thame primary schools sang confidently and with obvious pleasure on the big stage and were praised for the standard of their performance by the visitors from Montesson who enjoyed hearing them from the Twinning French market stall close by.

MORE IMAGES FROM THAME’S DICKENSIAN CHRISTMAS EVENT – HERE