To try and think of an easy way to do village Christmas event?

[Letsgoroundagain101]

I’m part of a fledgling group trying to create a community spirit in our village. We’re trying to think of very easy ways to make a village Christmas event. It can’t involve shutting roads or anything elaborate or expensive. Unfortunately we don't have a village green or any public space in the centre of the village. Our parish council is generally supportive but massively understaffed.
There is a Christmas tree festival on at the church already and we were planning an elf trail for kids in the run up too. Local shops and cafes want to join in but what can they actually do to make it a special experience for the community without too much effort or expense?

A Santa run, where I am the Round Table do a Santa run. They use a pickup truck with plywood panels either side to make it look like a sledge, Santa in the sledge and a few elfs giving out sweets.

I'd do a window decorating competition and then a self guided glow walk (sell glow sticks at the beginning, the sort that click together are very popular with kids, or there could be a 'make your own lantern' activity) where you give out trail maps and people go round all the houses. It could include stops for hot drinks / sausage inna bun / mincepies at various points if you wanted, but my advice would be to keep it simple the first time as you only have 8 weeks to get organised

Our housing estate does this (just a bunch of people who dress up every year) I love it! 10/10 approve.
I was say waiting for them to come

Is there a car park? Carols in the car park one evening, maybe Christmas eve? Have a bucket towards donations to future events

A santa sleigh that goes around the streets ringing a bell

Quiz walk (prob appeal to people without kids) charge £3 per team and keep some of the proceeds towards future events

Competition for best decorated garden tree (doesn't have to be an fir tree) People put their photos on your local FB group and people vote

Collection point for local food bank

Old peoples christmas lunchon with raffle

How about NOT doing it at Christmas when everyone has a ton of stuff on their plate AND then it's obviously only for those who celebrate Christmas (rather than the whole community). Couldn't you do something at a less busy time of year for some fun/ involvement that's more inclusive and less likely to be another drag on time in an already over cluttered season?

Are you thinking of perhaps a conker championship in late September perhaps?

I like a lot the idea of a collection point for food bank and glow sticks, mince pies etc etc all good ideas thanks so much!
We are planning to do stuff all year round (we have already made a heritage walk with leaflet which has been very popular in the nice weather) but it seems like a wasted opportunity to not attach a bit more community-building to the existing Xmas tree festival as it is well-attended. I know all about how cluttered December gets as I am in retail and work long/extra hours in dec, I still can find time for events and social stuff tho and i think plenty of people enjoy these things, especially if its free and kid-friendly! A very small town nearby has a Xmas lights switch on end Nov and its always absolutely heaving with families!

Just a question on the lantern idea, is there any health and safety we need to think about, or should we just sell/give out glow sticks cos they’re safer?

We do carol singing outside the pub. No charge or fundraising, just turn up and sing with varying degrees of tunefulness. No one takes it seriously at all. The pub give out free mince pies and sell mulled wine etc if people want it, but we gather on the pavement, so it's not a 'pub event' as such.

It's nice to do a thing that's just fun. Not costing anything or requiring lots of organising. Several years ago someone printed some booklets with the words in and we reuse them every year.

Used to live in what we were told was the smallest town in England, felt like a village but with more shops.

Each year they did a Dickensian Christmas. The shopkeepers dressed up in costume and stayed open late for Christmas shopping, local churches got together and sang Carols and there were vendors selling chestnuts, mulled wine, etc. It was only a couple of nights but really lovely.

Can you get a street closure from the council?

A tug of war is cheap and cheerful. Different streets / churches / the school / the pubs / the shops could all field teams.

Best costume prize themed on nativity characters.

(Also, the sheep with fairy lights sound essential to me)

I think a street closure would be difficult, the parish council said that it’s an absolute nightmare of red tape (not sure if they were just trying to put us off it tho) Dickensian Christmas sounds wonderful, we might have to build up to that!
I’m thinking starting at church Xmas tree festival, Shops/cafes stay open late, lantern/glow stick procession past shops, sing carols at one or two places en route, finish off with mince pie and mulled wine somewhere…