THOUSANDS of people braved the wet weather conditions to get into the Christmas spirit this weekend.

The first weekend of December has become a festive tradition for Arkell’s to host their Christmas Market at its Kingsdown brewery.

This year the family run business decided to make it even bigger and better as they included more craft and food stalls, and hired an oompah band to perform live.

Head brewer Alexander Arkell said: “This is one of our favourite times of the year and we are very proud to be able to open up the brewery to welcome the town to this event.

“Initially it was just going to be a small market on our lovely site here in Kingsdown to show of our beautiful brewery and get people in the festive spirit.

“We thought only a couple of hundred would show up but it turned out to be popular and thousands queued up to come to it – so we decided this would become a yearly event.

“Christmas is the season to be jolly and everyone loves to have fun at this time of the year.”

One of the highlights of the day was putting up the 32ft Christmas tree, which has been grown on a farm in Wales.

Many families enjoyed feeding and meeting reindeers Dancer and Tiny Tinsel, before visiting Santa’s grotto.

There was also a selection of stalls that had hand-crafted decorations, knitwear, face painting, sweet treats, special cheeses and even a letter to Santa stand.

Donna Seago has been pitching her stall, Crafts You Like, ever since the launch of the first event four years ago. She said: “This is the best place to not only show your work but to get in the Christmas spirit. I love coming to this and I will continue to for as long as it runs.”

Across town Christmas at Steam was taking place. The building was packed as people explored the festive stalls among the museum’s railway history.

As well as craft stalls, Kentwood show choir and Swindon School of Brass performed traditional festive music which had spectators joining in singing along with them.

Shirley Webb, of Devizes, was visiting Steam’s event for the first time. She said: “It was an absolutely wonderful event and well worth the travel. It really puts you in the Christmas spirit.”