Christmas in Downton 2026

East end of St Laurence Church, Downton, with the chancel window facing a churchyard of headstones

St Laurence Church has put the first firm date on Downton’s Christmas. The Christmas Tree Festival will fill the Grade I building on The Borough on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 December.

Local people, schools and groups decorate individual trees and bring them into the nave. The May parish magazine promised a programme of music across the two days, the usual bric-a-brac stall and cakes baked in the village. Previous years have taken tree entries from the library and the Borough Cafe as well as the church. The weekend has run as a walk-round rather than a ticketed show, and entry has usually been free.

South side and tower of St Laurence Church, Downton, above a sloping churchyard — St Laurence from the churchyard, the Grade I building that hosts the tree festival, carols and Christmas Eve services

The rest of the month is still being written. Downton Parish Council has not posted a date for the tree lights on Maypole Green. In 2024 that switch-on was a Friday evening at 5.30pm, with free drinks and a carol singalong on the green. Organisers have treated an early December Friday as the pattern, but nothing is confirmed for 2026.

Mid-December at St Laurence normally brings the village carol service and a concert with Downton Band and the community choir.

Those evenings have not been advertised. The church has listed a separate date on 11 December, an evening with West End actor Courtney Spence that includes a reading of A Christmas Carol.

Christmas Eve services follow the same holding pattern. In recent years St Laurence has held a Christingle at 5pm and midnight communion at 11.30pm. Team vicar Revd Veronica Batchelor has not yet issued the 2026 times on A Church Near You.

Updates tend to appear first in the parish magazine, on the church facebook page and in InDownton Newsletter.