Dame Elaine Staige and Silly Billy help the Mayor light Sevenoaks at 4.30pm on 28 November. Dorset Street now shuts with the High Street, 1.30pm to 7pm.

The two stars of this year’s Stag pantomime will be on stage with the Mayor of Sevenoaks when the town’s Christmas lights go on at 4.30pm on Saturday 28 November.

Jamie Alexander Wilson, who plays Dame Elaine Staige, and Ant Payne, who plays Silly Billy, will perform with the rest of the Robin Hood cast before joining Cllr Victoria Granville for the countdown, Sevenoaks Town Council said in a release on 2 November. The afternoon runs from 3pm to 5.30pm in the town centre.

The release also widens the road closure. The High Street, Dorset Street and part of Akehurst Lane will be shut from 1.30pm to 7pm. The council’s first listing for the event, in October, named only the High Street and Akehurst Lane.

“We’re looking forward to bringing the community together for our fantastic Christmas Lights event,” the Mayor said. “As usual, there will be plenty of entertainment both on stage and around the Town Centre, including the popular Santa’s Grotto. As the evening approaches, I’ll be joining the panto cast for the countdown to the big switch-on. We hope to see you there to start the Christmas celebrations in Sevenoaks.”

Silly Billy in a pink and patchwork polka-dot costume holding a microphone on stage beside a blue light-up switch-on plinth
Silly Billy on stage at the 2025 Christmas Lights Switch-On, next to the switch-on plinth. Photo: supplied by Sevenoaks Town Council

What is on the stage

Made in Kent Radio will compère. The council promises choirs, samba drummers and Elsa, Anna and Olaf from Frozen on the stage programme, with “some special guests wandering through the crowds”. It has not published the names of the choirs or a running order.

There will be stalls selling food, drink and gifts. The poster for the event also lists live music, rides and street entertainment. Entry is free; neither the release nor the poster mentions a charge or tickets.

Old School Samba drummers in orange and blue jackets playing large drums on a lit stage at night
Old School Samba drummers on the switch-on stage. Photo: supplied by Sevenoaks Town Council

Santa’s Grotto under the clocktower

The grotto sits under the clocktower. Children can meet Father Christmas there and take home a present, the council says. The release does not give the grotto’s hours or say whether it charges, so check the council’s Christmas page before you go.

Father Christmas waving from a chair in front of a red-framed window backdrop beside a decorated Christmas tree
Father Christmas in Santa's Grotto in Sevenoaks. Photo: supplied by Sevenoaks Town Council

The timings, and the roads

  • 1.30pm High Street, Dorset Street and part of Akehurst Lane close
  • 3pm Stage entertainment, stalls and the grotto open
  • 4.30pm The Mayor and the panto cast switch on the lights
  • 5.30pm The event ends
  • 7pm The roads reopen

The council has not said which section of the High Street closes or published a diversion. Anyone who parks on the High Street, collects from a shop there late on the Saturday, or drives through the town centre that afternoon will need another route. Our guide to parking in Sevenoaks lists the district council car parks off the High Street.

Poster for the Sevenoaks Christmas Lights Switch-On on Saturday 28 November: entertainment 3pm to 5.30pm, lights switch-on 4.30pm, road closure 1.30pm to 7pm, with sponsor logos for Specsavers, Bluebird Care Sevenoaks, Bligh's Meadow and Manak Solicitors
The town council's poster for the 2026 switch-on, with the event times and the road closure. Photo: supplied by Sevenoaks Town Council

The event’s star level sponsors are Specsavers Sevenoaks, Manak Solicitors, Bluebird Care Sevenoaks and Bligh’s Meadow, whose support “has made this event possible”, the council said.

After the switch-on

The panto the cast are promoting, Robin Hood, runs at the Stag Theatre from 11 December to 3 January, according to the council’s Christmas page. Jamie Alexander Wilson wrote and directs it.

The council’s Saturday and Wednesday markets carry on, and the Bligh’s market runs every day from Friday 11 to Thursday 24 December. The council also says a record of more than 260 children aged 11 and under entered this year’s Design a Christmas Light competition; the winning drawing becomes a light outside House in the Basement.

A white snowflake-shaped Christmas light fixed between two lit street lanterns at night, with hanging plants to the left
A snowflake Christmas light between street lanterns in Sevenoaks. Photo: supplied by Sevenoaks Town Council

Everything else we know about the afternoon, including last year’s line-up and the other switch-ons in the district, is in our Sevenoaks Christmas lights switch-on guide. For the fairs at the big houses, see Christmas markets near Sevenoaks.

Sources