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Welcome to the Sittingbourne Christmas Lights and Sleigh Rounds "knowledge base" wiki.

Our group of volunteers organises and fund-raises for three main activities:

1. Installing and removing the Christmas Lights in Sittingbourne High Street
2. The Christmas Lights Switch On Day event with entertainments and associated festivities.
3. The Father Christmas Sleigh Rounds which visit residential parts of Sittingbourne and the surrounding villages, bringing music and Christmas cheer to families.

We also run a few smaller activities:

1. We present a trophy for the house with the best exterior Christmas lights, called the Residential Gardens Competition.
2. We hold a thank you gathering for all our volunteers and anyone who has given us any kind of support, which usually takes place in early February.
3. As of 2025 we are organising our first "Santa Run" in central Sittingbourne, planned for Saturday 13th Dec 2025.

Our activities benefit all sorts of people and cover large parts of Sittingbourne and the surrounding area and villages.

This wiki is intended to collect information on the organisation of all the activities, for the use of volunteers in this group but also other volunteer groups across the country.

The author hopes that this might one day be of use for other voluntary groups throughout the UK who are planning to organise Christmas Lights and other public events.

The main pages so far:

• Management Committee. The group of volunteers responsible for organising all the activities.
• Switch On Day
• Switch On Day Letter to Residents
• Residential Gardens Competition
• Sleigh Rounds
• Santa Sleigh
• Collection Licence for Sleigh Rounds. Apply to Swale Borough Council for this.
• Unmetered Supply Certificate. This is needed to apply for the street column attachment licence. It is needed to pay an energy supplier for the unmetered electricity taken from street light columns. In south east England this can be obtained from the UMSO contact at UK Power Networks.
• Streetlight Attachment Permit to attach Christmas lights to street lights in Sittingbourne High Street. Apply to Kent County Council for this.
• Grants and Fundraising
• Supporter Information