Saturday 21 November, 3pm to 5.30pm: Father Christmas on a yellow bus, a laser show at the 5pm countdown and a two-day market. Rubery follows on 28 November.

Bromsgrove’s Christmas lights switch-on is on Saturday 21 November 2026, from 3pm to 5.30pm on the High Street, and the laser show is back. The countdown starts at 5pm. Father Christmas arrives on a big yellow bus, and the Christmas market runs on the Friday and Saturday. Bromsgrove District Council published the programme on 28 October.

Rubery follows a week later, on Saturday 28 November, 3pm to 5.30pm, in the Co-op car park on New Road.

Updated 29 October: the council has published the full programme, with a 5.30pm finish rather than the 5pm first listed, the laser and music finale, the performers and the market times. Rubery’s programme is out too. Road closures and the other village dates are still to come.

The 2026 programme

From the council’s Next Stop: Christmas! announcement:

  • 3pm to 5.30pm, activities across the town centre, free
  • Father Christmas on his big yellow bus, with the chance to meet him and take photos
  • Live music from Stourport-on-Severn Brass Band, Crystal Gospel Choir and musical theatre performer Haley Louise
  • Illuminated stilt walkers and Christmas street performers roaming the town centre
  • Council chairman Cllr Josh Robinson addresses the crowd before the countdown
  • 5pm countdown, with a choreographed laser and music show as the High Street lights go on
  • 6pm, Primrose Hospice’s Lights of Love service outside Asda, a moment to remember someone you have lost

The Bromsgrove Christmas Market, run by The Bromsgrove Society, opens 9am to 4pm on Friday 20 November and 10am to 6pm on Saturday 21 November. More on the stalls is on our Christmas market page.

There is no main stage again. The council has kept the format it switched to in 2025, when crowd safety nearly cancelled the event (below).

The date

The council has used a late November Saturday for years, and 2026 keeps the pattern:

Year Date What happened
2023 Saturday 18 November Countdown 3.30pm to 5.30pm, High Street
2024 Saturday 23 November Cancelled on the day, Storm Bert
2025 Saturday 22 November Ran 3pm to 5.30pm, lights on just before 5pm
2026 Saturday 21 November Confirmed, 3pm to 5.30pm, countdown 5pm, laser show

The events listing first gave a 5pm finish. The council’s programme of 28 October puts the end back at 5.30pm, the same as 2023 and 2025, with the countdown at 5pm.

Why 2025 looked different, and probably sets the template

On 20 August 2025 the council announced there would be no switch-on at all. Portfolio holder Cllr Bernard McEldowney gave the reason on the council’s own site: “As the event has grown over the years it has become more and more popular, to such an extent that it has become a health and safety concern.” Deputy leader Cllr Sue Baxter added that residents’ “safety is paramount and this is what was at the forefront of our minds when making this tough decision.”

The next day the council reversed it. Leader Cllr Karen May said the celebration would go ahead “in a different format”, with music and entertainment alongside the St John’s market, but without a traditional main stage.

The replacement was a laser and music show. The council’s thinking, as reported by the Bromsgrove Standard, was that one big stage created a bottleneck where crowds converged, so the lasers let people watch from anywhere on the High Street. It worked further than intended: residents reported seeing the beams from Lidl on Bromsgrove Retail Park. Cllr May’s verdict afterwards was that “we wanted to do something totally different that was not seen in other towns”.

The 2026 programme confirms it: lasers and roaming entertainment again, no stage.

What the 2025 event actually contained

  • Saturday 22 November, 3pm to 5.30pm, Bromsgrove High Street, free
  • Council chairman Cllr Sam Evans welcomed the crowds and started the countdown
  • The countdown ran over loudspeakers along the whole High Street, lights on just before 5pm
  • Live and roaming entertainment from local choirs, panto cast, Stourport Brass Band and Father Christmas
  • A choir performance closed the event
  • Primrose Hospice’s Lights of Love was at 6pm outside Asda, with Stourport Brass Band, for people remembering someone they have lost

The Bromsgrove Christmas Market ran on the Friday and Saturday alongside it, at the top end of the High Street.

The village switch-ons

Bromsgrove town is only the first of them. These are the 2025 dates and times, from the council’s own announcement:

Place 2025 date Time and location
Bromsgrove Sat 22 November 3pm, High Street (2026: Sat 21 November, 3pm to 5.30pm)
Catshill Sat 22 November 3pm, the village hall
Wythall Fri 28 November 4.45pm, the War Memorial, Gorsey Lotts
Rubery Sat 29 November 3pm, the Co-op car park (2026: see below)
Barnt Green Sat 29 November 3.30pm, Millennium Park
Hagley Sat 29 November 4pm, Worcester Road
Alvechurch Sat 29 November 4pm, The Square outside the Co-op
Aston Fields Sun 14 December 3pm, street party in the centre of the village

All of them are free. Two notes on that table. The council’s 2025 announcement repeated the 14 December street party detail against both Alvechurch and Aston Fields, which reads as a copy error: Aston Fields is the one that has historically held its own December street party, and it ran from 2pm to 10pm on Sunday 1 December in 2024. Rubery’s venue is the Co-op car park on New Road, as in 2025.

Rubery 2026 is confirmed. The council’s Rubery Switches On Christmas announcement of 28 October gives Saturday 28 November, 3pm to 5.30pm, in the Co-op car park on New Road. It is free and run with local volunteers. Expect:

  • local singers and carol groups
  • seasonal refreshments
  • gift stalls
  • the countdown to the lights at the end of the afternoon

The council prints a postcard carrying every date and time and distributes it through libraries and the Parkside customer service centre. That postcard, not the website, is usually the first place the full list appears.

Bromsgrove District Council rebuilt its website, and the festive pages that Google still surfaces have gone. Both /news/posts/festive-dates-for-your-diary and /things-to-do/activities-events/posts/bromsgrove-christmas-markets-events-programme now return the council’s “our website has undergone a major rework” error page. The bromsgrove.gov.uk/events address that the council itself printed in its press releases redirects to a listing with two items on it.

Parking and roads

The High Street is pedestrianised where the event happens, so the question is where to leave the car. Every council car park in the town gives 30 minutes free, charges run to 6pm on every day including Sundays, and long stay is £6 in most of them. The detail, including the one car park that charges £11, is on parking in Bromsgrove.

Stourbridge Road car park has now closed permanently, so a town-centre option that existed at last year’s switch-on will not be there.

The council closed the main Market Square area from 4.45pm in past years for the countdown. No 2026 closure notice had been published by 29 October. Live closures are tracked on Bromsgrove roadworks and travel.

What we are waiting on

  • The rest of the village switch-on list (only Bromsgrove and Rubery are out) and the printed postcard
  • Any road closure notice for the High Street and Market Square

Sources