Angela Finlayson celebrates the unique festive decorations of this small Fife town.
AS Christmas approaches, excitement starts to build for the young – and young at heart – residents of the small Fife town of Newburgh.
In common with communities all over the country, the Christmas lights switch-on is one of the social events of the year.
But in Newburgh, it has added significance . . .
Five years ago, if you’d asked a Newburgh local what was remarkable about their town, you’d have heard several proud boasts.
It dates back to at least 1266, when it was made a burgh by King Alexander III, and enjoys a setting of great natural beauty on the banks of the River Tay.
It’s famous for producing fine fruit, especially plums and pears; the original trees were planted by the monks of Lindores Abbey.
At that abbey, in 1494, the first written record of distilling spirits was made, earning Newburgh its place in history as the birthplace of Scotch whisky.
The town even has a giant 300-foot bear holding a ragged staff carved into a hillside (the emblem of the Earls of Warwick, long associated with the abbey)!
But in 2020, and to the astonishment of locals, Newburgh became a global sensation, and all because of its Christmas lights.
You see, these aren’t just any off-the-peg, generic festive decorations.
Instead, for the past two decades, Newburgh’s Christmas lights have been designed by the town’s primary school children in an annual competition.
It’s a hotly contested occasion, with pupils vying to come up with the winning design and see their creation literally up in lights, courtesy of a company called Blachere, the biggest supplier of Christmas lighting in the UK.
They’re all desperate to have their own light join the winners from previous years, which include a blue angel, a turkey, a dancing Christmas tree, a rather stern penguin and an unconventional but sparkly green dinosaur, amongst many more.
The COVID pandemic saw a rainbow added to the collection in 2021, and in 2022 the winner was a salmon wearing a Christmas hat.
Not quite as random as it might seem, but a tribute to Newburgh’s salmon-fishing heritage!
The designs are joyously and unashamedly childlike, inventive, quirky and original, but nobody in Newburgh thought they were especially noteworthy or remarkable – until 2020.
That year, with schools closed and th
