Bracknell Christmas Lights: Sandhurst Set for 28 November

Two of the borough’s three festive events already have 2026 dates. Sandhurst Town Council’s Christmas Lights Event is set for Saturday 28 November, and Crowthorne’s Late Night Christmas Shopping for Friday 4 December, 5pm to 7.30pm. The one most people search for, the town centre switch-on at The Lexicon, has not been announced.

Bracknell’s lights are not a council event. The Lexicon runs and pays for the town centre display, and it announces the date itself, usually in November. In 2025 it went up on the centre’s news page on 10 November, eleven days before the event.

The Lexicon, Bracknell: not announced yet

As at 5 September 2026, the newest item on The Lexicon’s news page was dated 12 August and the centre’s events listings ran only to the end of the summer holidays. (The Lexicon news)

Here is what the centre did in 2025, which is the best guide to what to expect.

The lights came on at 5.30pm on Friday 21 November 2025, with Santa turning them on from the top of an eight-metre double-decker red bus. Santa’s Grotto opened the next day, Saturday 22 November, in the former Topshop unit in Princess Square opposite Dunelm. The festive market returned in wooden huts, the Lexicon Express ran lit with fairy lights, and there was a free Christmas trail with three £50 gift cards as prizes. A schools carol concert was held at Union Square on 14 December at 2pm. (The Lexicon, 10 November 2025)

Grotto prices in 2025 were £9.50 per child off peak and £12.50 peak, plus £1 per adult and a £2.50 booking fee, with dedicated SEND sessions every Sunday at 9.30am and on Wednesdays at 10.30am and 3pm. The grotto sold out. (The Lexicon, Santa’s Grotto 2025)

The centre added a new event late in the season, Festive Friday, on 19 December 2025 from 4pm to 8pm, with free entertainment and character appearances. Centre director Tom Henderson said at the time that if the community liked it, “we’d be delighted to make it a regular Christmas highlight”. (The Lexicon, Festive Friday)

When to expect the 2026 date: the grotto was announced on 16 September in 2025, and the full Christmas programme in early November. The 2024 switch-on was Friday 15 November, the 2025 one Friday 21 November, so a Friday evening in the second half of November is the pattern.

Sandhurst: Saturday 28 November, confirmed

Sandhurst Town Council’s diary lists a Christmas Lights Event on Saturday, 28 November 2026. (Sandhurst Diary)

No time, location or programme has been published with it. The council’s offices at Memorial Park, Yorktown Road, are being refurbished for six to seven weeks from 24 August, with contact by email only during the works, so details may come later than usual. (Sandhurst Town Council)

Crowthorne: Late Night Christmas Shopping, Friday 4 December

Crowthorne’s festive evening is confirmed for Friday 4 December 2026, 5pm to 7.30pm, on the High Street. It is the village’s main Christmas event and the parish council has listed it in its community dates for the year. (Crowthorne Parish Council newsletter, summer 2026)

Stall bookings are already open. The parish council has kept pitch fees at £25 for a commercial stall and £10 for a charity stall, with PTAs providing 20 minutes of musical entertainment charged nothing. It is limited to 50 stalls, local charities and traders get priority, and stallholders need public liability cover of at least £5m, plus gas safety and food hygiene paperwork where relevant. Pitch locations are emailed out about two weeks before. (Crowthorne Parish Council, stall application)

The booking system went live over the summer and two stalls had booked by the council’s September meeting. (Crowthorne Parish Council agenda pack, 1 September 2026)

The question hanging over Crowthorne’s lights

Crowthorne’s Christmas light motifs hang from street lamp columns on the High Street, and those columns have to be tested because of the extra load. Bracknell Forest Council has paid for that testing. It has told the parish council it will not pay in 2026.

The full detail is in the written answer given by Councillor Paul Bidwell, Cabinet Member for Economy and Regeneration, to a question from Councillor Nicholas Robertson at full Council on 26 November 2025. (Bracknell Forest Council, questions submitted under Council Procedure Rule 10, 26 November 2025)

• The 15 lamp columns on Crowthorne High Street were installed in 2002. They were structurally tested in 2023, earlier than ordinary highway rules require, because of their age and the load the Christmas lighting puts on them.
• That test graded 8 columns amber, needing a retest in 2026, and 7 green, needing one in 2029.
• The 2023 test cost £1,800 plus VAT and was paid for by the borough’s economic development service to support Crowthorne’s retailers after the pandemic.
• The 2026 retest of the 8 amber columns includes the loading calculation for the Christmas decorations, and the parish council must pay for it.
• From 2027 the borough will do the periodic testing, but the extra cost of the decoration loading calculations still falls on the parish council unless the borough gets further UK Shared Prosperity Fund or similar grant money.
• The Lexicon’s decorations are provided, paid for and annually tested by the shopping centre’s own contractor. The council has contributed each year from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, and that allocation “is not expected to be extended beyond this financial year”.

Councillor Bidwell said he had asked officers to revisit the matter once it was clear what grant funding might be available, but that the costs “cannot be met by normal Council budgets”.

Councillor Robertson had put it in blunt terms: Bracknell Town Council pays nothing towards structural tests on borough or Lexicon lamp columns, so “Crowthorne is being treated differently (less favourably) from an economic development perspective than Bracknell Town centre”, on what is the only high street in the borough. He also noted that if the parish council removed the banners and dropped the lights, the testing cost would revert to the borough anyway.

Crowthorne Parish Council’s own minutes record three councillors meeting Councillor Bidwell “to follow up the concern about the withdrawal of funding by BFC for structural tests on the lamp columns used to mount the Christmas light motifs from 2026”. (Crowthorne Parish Council agenda pack, 2 December 2025)

No outcome has been published since. The parish council’s September 2026 agenda pack records lamp column repair work at the Millennium Garden and says nothing about the Christmas motifs. Until the parish council confirms it has paid for the 2026 retest, treat Crowthorne’s lights as unresolved. The Late Night Christmas Shopping evening itself is going ahead either way.

Warfield, Binfield and Winkfield

None of the borough’s other parishes has published a 2026 switch-on. Bracknell Town Council’s events list carries nothing festive at all beyond 30 October. (Bracknell Town Council events)

Smaller residential switch-ons do happen across the borough, organised by developers and residents’ groups rather than councils. They are rarely listed anywhere central. If you are running one, send us the date and we will add it.

Frequently asked questions

When are Bracknell’s Christmas lights switched on in 2026?

The Lexicon has not announced the date. It ran the switch-on on Friday 21 November in 2025 and Friday 15 November in 2024, both at 5.30pm, and published the announcement on its own news page. Expect a Friday evening in the second half of November, announced from mid-September onwards.

Who pays for Bracknell’s Christmas lights?

The Lexicon. The shopping centre provides, pays for and annually tests the town centre decorations through its own contractor. Bracknell Forest Council has made an annual contribution from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, and told full Council in November 2025 that the allocation “is not expected to be extended beyond this financial year”.

When is the Sandhurst Christmas lights event?

Saturday 28 November 2026. That is the date in Sandhurst Town Council’s own diary. No time or location has been published with it.

When is Crowthorne’s Late Night Christmas Shopping?

Friday 4 December 2026, 5pm to 7.30pm, on Crowthorne High Street. Stall bookings are open, at £25 for a commercial pitch and £10 for a charity pitch, capped at 50 stalls.

Will Crowthorne have Christmas lights in 2026?

It is unresolved. Bracknell Forest Council has told the parish council it will not pay for the 2026 structural testing of the eight amber-graded lamp columns that carry the light motifs, so the parish council must fund it. No outcome has been published. The Late Night Christmas Shopping evening is going ahead either way.

How much is Santa’s Grotto at The Lexicon?

No 2026 price is out. In 2025 it was £9.50 per child off peak and £12.50 at peak times, plus £1 per adult and a £2.50 booking fee. SEND sessions ran every Sunday at 9.30am and Wednesdays at 10.30am and 3pm. It sold out.

Practical notes

The Lexicon switch-on is the busiest evening in Bracknell town centre all year, and it falls on a Friday, on top of the normal evening traffic. Our parking in Bracknell page covers which of the council’s car parks charge, the town centre car parks around The Lexicon and Princess Square, and the resident permit zones that catch people out.

Check Bracknell roadworks and travel before travelling in. The council publishes urgent closures with full diversion routes on a separate page from its planned resurfacing programme, and both run through the autumn.

Dates confirmed so far

This page is updated as each organiser publishes.