Canterbury is a magical destination at Christmas.
The city will be sparkling this year with beautiful lights adorning the streets and the ancient towers, and a whole host of fun-filled activities and experiences in store for visitors of all ages.
Our mission this festive season is to help keep attention firmly on Canterbury, and to encourage visitors to explore the city. Scroll down for details of the Christmas Light Parade (14 November), LEGO Window Trail (14 Nov-24 Dec), Late Night Shopping (13 December), Christmas Window Competition (judging on 6 December) and the Christmas Campaign toolkit with free images, campaign elements and a super handy event calendar.
Christmas Campaign 2025 Toolkit for Businesses
Last year’s campaign saw a reach of of 27million+. Make the most of the campaign and join in – we have copyright-free Christmas images, social post ideas, hashtags and Christmas design elements you can add to your own artwork. Find out more by clicking below to access our handy digital toolkit.
Download: Christmas Campaign Toolkit
Christmas Design Elements
Download PNGs from the Canva link above and create your own, on-brand Christmas designs.
Christmas Photo Album
Browse festive images of the city from in the Canterbury BID flickr album
Share the Christmas film
We have created a film that shows Canterbury in its full sparkling glory!
MyCanterbury Winter Guide 2025 – Out Now!
Hot off the press, 18,000 Winter Guides are being distributed door-to-door around the district, hotels, B&Bs, attractions and businesses. It’s stuffed full of festive ideas to keep everyone entertained and well-fed over Christmas, with a handy “What’s On”, local stories, festive tips plus loads of ideas for Christmas shopping. A digital copy of the guide is available to view and share on your platforms.
Christmas Light Swich-On Parade – Friday 15 November 2025
Christmas launched in Canterbury on Friday 14 November 2025!
We trialled a new format with 12 activation points (5–8pm), and visitors stayed longer. Click the links below to relive this year’s event!
Our activities:
✅ 4 switch-on sites | 12 themed activities | 7 miles of lights
✅ 400+ LEGO trail tickets in 3 days
✅ Park & Ride usage doubled
✅ Footfall up 40% vs last year
Our goals:
- Position Canterbury as Kent’s top Christmas destination
- Spread footfall and encourage city exploration
- Boost dwell time and spend on switch-on night
Christmas Window Competition 2025
Canterbury always looks particularly magical thanks to all your beautifully decorated Christmas windows. So let’s celebrate your creations and throw some extra sparkle on you all this festive season with our our annual Best Dressed Christmas Window Competition.
What’s in it for my business?
All entries will feature on MyCanterbury Facebook and Instagram.
All award-winning windows will receive a certificate.
The Judge’s Favourites will also receive a bottle of fizz and a £50 Canterbury Gift Card.
What’s in it for my business?
Saturday 6 Dec (2-5pm):
The judging panel will take a walk around the city, allocating awards including Silver, Gold and Platinum. They will also select Judge’s Favourites in each category. The Judges Favourites will also recieve a visit from the Lord Mayor on Friday 12 December.
LEGO Christmas Tree Window Trail
From 14 November to 24 December 2025
42 local businesses are displaying seasonal scenes around a LEGO Christmas tree in their windows. Organised by Canterbury BID this is one of the highlights of the festive season in the city. The trail begins at The Beaney in the High Street, then it’s time to head out to find those LEGO Christmas trees and collect stamps at each of the participating locations.
Christmas Lights
Canterbury will be shining brightly this Christmas with lights provided by Canterbury BID.
Over the last ten years, we have provided Christmas lights for the city, testing every possible location and expanding the scheme where we can. Canterbury is an historic city with listed buildings and, in some areas, old infrastructure. Our Christmas Lights contractor, Gala Lights, tests all the fixing points and installs lights around the city. For lamp columns and trees, load testing and permission has to be obtained from Kent County Council, and unfortunately, they haven’t given us permission to put lights on all of the lamp columns we would like. Nonetheless, it’s still an extensive scheme that covers as much of the city as possible.
All of the lights will be on timers this year and will be on from 3:00pm-3.30am. We check the lights daily both in the morning and at 4pm, but please do let us know if you have any questions.
Here are the Christmas light facts in a nutshell:
7: miles of lights put up each year
12: people to put up and take down the lights over 7 nights
17: switches along the parade route
100s: of permissions obtained by the BID team, allowing lights to be attached
5,000: in attendance at the annual switch-on event, enjoying themselves in our city
£77,000: is the annual cost for our Christmas decorations
118,000: LED lights twinkle above our city from 15 November to early January
