Fort William Festive Fund

12/12/2025

Ho Ho Ho ... 🎅

Merry Christmas Fort William 🎄

It’s been a busy couple of weeks since I was very kindly invited to help switch on your Christmas lights.. The weather was blowing a hooley as I think you say up here when I arrived, but so many people braved the weather to come and see us. So, thank you to all the boys and girls and parents who made that special effort, the work your Festive Fund team do is incredible, and I have asked if they can come and get my elves ship shape for Christmas too!!

Anyway enough of me rambling, I wanted to let a certain young child called Eris know, why I arrived on a tractor this year and not on my sleigh.

It’s very simple really.. As you all know Fort William does get rather wet, and me parking my sleigh down near the bottom of the mountain would only get it stuck in the mud and I’d have a terrible time trying to get it out. So, I park a little way secretly up the mountain you call Ben Nevis, where the ground is a little harder, and the weather is much colder. Much better for Rudolph and his friends. Then your lovely Festive team pick me up and drive me in on one of their vehicles, so how can I refuse. So, there you go Eris, that’s why I arrive on a tractor.. 🚜
Anyway a very Happy Christmas to you all in Fort William and I will be sure to see you all very soon. Lots of love Santa. X🎅

11/12/2025

Now we have recovered from our fantastic Festive light switch on a couple of weeks ago, we would like to say a last 🙏THANK YOU🙏 to everyone involved in making the evening happen.

With the raffle and all the entertainment, Face painting, Maddie's balloons, Santa's grotto, Tombola, Light sticks all in all we raised just over £1200 on the night, plus the fabulous donations we received on our Go Fund Me page. These funds will go a long way to helping us secure storage space for all of our new lights and also give us a great start in funding next year's event.

If you would like to help us start planning sponsorship, fundraising or purchasing more lovely lights for 2026 get in touch to join the team. We would love to share our plans with new members, hear some new ideas and get a new perspective on what we can do to improve the town displays.

In the meantime from all of the Festive Fund team to all of you, we wish you a lovely Christmas, a Happy New Year and best wishes for a happy, healthy 2026 💕

ps we received a special delivery message today from the North Pole, so watch this space tomorrow evening and we'll share his special note with you all too ... 🎅

03/12/2025

Lovely article online about the Festive light Switch on, thank you to everyone who came along and made it such a wonderful night 🎅

The community turned out in force to support and enjoy another fantastic annual Christmas light switch-on organised by the Fort William Festive Fund (FWFF).

29/11/2025

Thank you so much Maddie Children's Parties/Discos Fort William. You support us every year and we love all the amazing balloon models you make 🎈 xx

29/11/2025

Wow, what a night! 🥳

Despite awful weather in the lead up to the event we had a wonderful turnout to the High Street.

The crowds didn’t disappoint in the count down to the lights being switched on and we hope you all like the new additions to the columns in town.

We have so many people to thank for making last night such a fantastic success, but for now here are a few memories of a fantastic community evening 🎅🎄

27/11/2025

We will be offering 20% off all full price items all day tomorrow so pop in and grab a bargain 🎄🎄

27/11/2025

Don't miss the Penguin Hunt this year in the High Street, head to the Gallery in the Fort to take part ...

Penguin Hunt

Three of our penguins have gone missing and we need children to help us find them in shop windows on the High Street this Friday evening.

They are Sylvester the Rockhopper (Rocky), Elvis the King and Emperor Ralph. A prize will be given to a lucky winner and a small gift to everyone who helps us find them.

27/11/2025

Look at our amazing decorations for the West Highland Museum & Santa's grotto🙂 All of these have been beautifully created by pupils from Lundavra Primary School. Make sure to look out for them while you're waiting to see Santa tomorrow 💕

27/11/2025

Don't miss the Granite House tomorrow night when you come into town!

Tomorrow night is Fort William’s annual Christmas lights switch on! Organised every year by the wonderful Fort William Festive Fund, this event marks the start of the Christmas season!

We’ll be open until 8pm with various offers and a free to enter Lego competition! Come on down to the High Street to see the lights and join in the festivities!

For a full breakdown of event timings head to the Festive Fund’s page!

🎄🎅🏻

26/11/2025

Look at all the kind donations we have received for this year's Festive event. We are well and truly overwhelmed with the support we have received. Thank you so much ♥...

26/11/2025

As you know the Light Switch on evening and Festive Lights are not funded in any way other than through generous donations and sponsorship. We have been extremely fortunate this year to have many people supporting us but to sustain the evening for the future, we need to raise as much as we can on the actual evening.

If you are heading into town, visiting Santa or planning to enjoy any of the entertainment, please consider donating to us. We can take both cash or contactless donations, so find someone in a high vis and they can direct you to one of the team who would be happy to help you make your donation 🤗