Celebrities Turn Out to Turn On Christmas Lights

Rihanna turned on the Westfield Christmas lights.

‘Tis the season for celebrities to turn on the Christmas lights in towns and cities across the UK.

Over the coming weeks, this very British tradition will be ‘delighting’ crowds up and down the country who turn out to see their favourite actor speak, or their beloved band perform, or, more likely, a D-list ‘celebrity’ press a button. We’ve selected some of the highlights of the 2010 Christmas Lights Switch-On Ceremonies:

             –  Westfield Shopping Centre, London (4^th November): Representing the truly A-list celebrities, Rihanna turned on the Christmas lights at Westfield after a performance that wowed her many fans. The bad news: if this is the first you’ve heard about this performance, then you missed it.

             – Braehead Shopping Centre, Glasgow (4^th November): Last week, Glasgow became the first of the cities to invite an X-Factor reject to turn on their lights, except there was a bonus…there were two X-Factor rejects turning on the lights! They were the ridiculous twins that call themselves Jedward.

             – Regent Street, London (9^th November): Continuing with the X-Factor theme, Regent Street has last year’s winner, Joe McElderry turning the lights on. He is fresh from doing absolutely nothing in the music charts for the last year so it should be a good show.    

            – Cardiff City Centre (10^th November): Cardiff has gone against the X-Factor trend by impressively snagging two real celebrities in Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. They are of course best known as Dr. Who and his red headed assistant.   

           – Sheffield City Centre (21^st November): And finally, possibly the most exciting of all the celebrity Christmas lights appearances, Sheffield have managed to persuade the Zingzillas (!) to perform at their ceremony. We don’t really know what they are but it sounds exciting doesn’t it?   

Impressed by any of these celebrity endorsements? Know any others in your area? Let us know below.

Learn all about the traditions of the various festivities in Britain with our Guide to British Celebrations.

Image: MiKeARB on Flickr.