Step into Christmas (past and present!)
The festive season has well and truly started in Newcastle! To celebrate, we share what local graduates have to look forward to this year and look back at some alumni memories of Christmases gone by.
10 November 2025
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…
Newcastle’s Christmas officially launched on Thursday 6 November, with the annual Christmas light switch-on celebrations. But what does the city have in store for us for the rest of the festive season, and how does that compare to previous years?
In this blog, explore all of the winter wonders in store for our student community and graduates who still call Newcastle home, and take a walk down a snowy memory lane as we reflect on some of the Christmas traditions and experiences enjoyed by alumni over the decades.
Family festive fun from Fenwick’s
Fenwick department store debuted its now much-loved annual Christmas window display on Northumberland Street in 1971, with scenes based on the popular children’s TV series Camberwick Green.
Marked as the start of the festive calendar in Newcastle, over the years we’ve seen windows depicting aliens, Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Shaun the Sheep – to name just a few! Last year’s display was based on the popular children’s book series, The Chronicles of Narnia.
This year’s festive display was revealed to fans worldwide via a social media livestream on Friday 7 November. Those keen to get the first magical glimpse of the windows were excited to see that this year’s is based on X.
Rocking around the Christmas tree (for 50 years!)
Lindisfarne is one of the region’s most successful ever bands, with hits including ‘Fog on the Tyne’ and ‘Run for Home’. In 1976, three years after officially splitting up, the folk rockers announced two dates at City Hall for 22nd and 23rd December, with the first show being recorded by the BBC. Across these dates (and an additional night added due to phenomenal demand), the band revisited the finest moments from their early 1970s back catalogue, closing the show appropriately with ‘White Christmas’.
50 years on from this first run of Christmas concerts, Lindisfarne are still going, and their annual Christmas City Hall shows are as much a part of Tyneside’s Christmas as Fenwick’s window display. Each December, they take over Newcastle’s City Hall and delight fans new and old with a mix of their hits and Christmas classics.
By 2004, the group had disbanded, but since 2013, a revamped version of Lindisfarne, fronted by Rod Clements, has been delighting fans both new and old at City Hall. Tickets are now available for their 2025 offering, scheduled for Saturday 20 December 2025.
Meet me at Monument?
One of the most obvious signs that the festive season is approaching in Newcastle, other than the twinkling lights above Northumberland Street, is the takeover of Grainger Town by the annual Christmas market.
Opening on Saturday 15 November this year, the Christmas market spans Grey Street, Monument, Grainger Street, Old Eldon Square and Nelson Street (for fresh produce traders from nearby Grainger Market), providing a prominent place for local independent businesses to promote their festive offerings and shoppers to grab the perfect gift.
Visitors can also enjoy a pitstop at the pop-up bar with fire pits and live music and the Christmas Village in Old Eldon Square will be hosting family favourite shows and Santa Stories in their winter tipi with the Big Man himself!
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Let there be lights
A fairly new tradition, but beloved by students and families alike, is light trails in our region’s most stunning outdoor settings.
Right on our doorstep, the Northern Lights Trail at Leazes Park returns for its third year in 2025. Visitors can enjoy a 1-mile trail around the oldest city centre park, taking in 15 awe-inspiring illumination zones, including prominent landmarks such as the park’s lake and bandstand, with light displays set to music ready to fill crowds with wonder. Northern Lights kicks off on Thursday 27 November and runs until New Year’s Eve!
On the coast, the Cullercoats community is celebrating 10 years of its annual advent, with residents unveiling light displays in their windows and gardens in the style of a living advent calendar. Visitors can simply follow the map through the streets to enjoy the lights throughout December. And the best part? It’s completely free to visit!
Further afield, Forest of Light at Beamish Hall showcases the Hall’s enchanting ancient woodland, with the light trail being available throughout November, December and even into January 2026. And in Northumberland, Winter Lights at Lilidorei and The Alnwick Garden will immerse visitors in the Christmas spirit through an ambient light and sound experience, festive food village and – of course! – Santa and his reindeer.
Tasty treats from Greggs (of Gosforth)
Did you know that beloved nationwide bakery chain Greggs started right here in Newcastle? John Gregg opened his first bakery, Greggs of Gosforth, in 1951 on Gosforth High Street. Today, Greggs is the go-to for food on-the-go, and its Festive Bake dominates the Christmas culinary calendar.
First introduced in 2009, the Festive Bake is a crumb-topped pastry filled with chicken, sage and onion stuffing, and sweet cured bacon, all in a creamy sage and cranberry sauce. And in 2021, a vegan alternative was introduced.
The 2025 offering was launched in stores on 6 November, and with over 30 Greggs in Newcastle alone, there’ll be plenty to go around!
Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas three!
Since 1949, Newcastle has been gifted a Christmas tree from our twin city in Norway, Bergen, to symbolise their gratitude for Newcastle’s support during World War II. The Bergen Tree is displayed proudly in front of the Civic Centre, just across from campus, with a traditional lighting ceremony taking place each year with both the Lord Mayor of Newcastle and the Mayor of Bergen present.
In 2023, a living tree was used for the first time as part of a shared commitment to cut carbon emissions and move towards a more sustainable future. The Mayor of Bergen also gifted a Christmas bauble for the Lord Mayor’s Christmas tree, another new custom introduced in 2023 and continued last year.
Closer to home (if that’s possible!), the campus Christmas tree in the Armstrong Quadrangle is lit each year by our Vice-Chancellor, in a celebration event often featuring student musicians performing Christmas carols.
And finally, did you know that last year our region was home to the UK’s tallest Christmas tree? Standing 42m tall (that’s more than two Angel of the Norths!), the Giant Redwood Wellingtonia at Cragside house in Northumberland is decked out in over 2,000 lightbulbs – appropriate for the house that was the first in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity!
Hilarity and high jinks
Pantomimes are one of the UK’s much-loved traditions of the festive season, and there’s plenty to choose from in Newcastle with a range of theatres in the city. Over the years, the Theatre Royal on Grey Street has welcomed big names like Barbara Windsor and David Jason to their stage to star in the annual pantomime.
Since 2005, though, local legends and father-son duo Clive Webb and Danny Adams have takenthe reins at the Royal, putting on hilarious slapstick performances including Cinderella (which also featured Jill Halfpenny) and Pinocchio (which saw local lad and X Factor winner Joe McElderry star as Jiminy Cricket). No wonder it’s now the fastest selling panto in the UK!
This year’s offering from Clive and Danny is Aladdin, with Joe McElderry returning as The Spirit of the Ring. Elsewhere across the city, theatre fans can enjoy seeing Maureen Nolan as Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother at Tyne Theatre and Opera House, or Beauty and the Beast at Northern Stage on campus.
And finally, are you dreaming of a White Christmas?
Alumni may recall snowy scenes on campus during their student days, from the ‘Deep Freeze’ of 1962/63, which started on Boxing Day 1962 and saw the most severe UK winter in living memory, to the official ‘whitest’ Christmas on record in 1976, where it snowed for 10 out of the 31 days in December, or the more recent festive snowfall of November 2010.
For many international students on campus, their first time ever seeing snow happens in Newcastle, which is a magical memory to stay with them for a lifetime! And alumni across the generations have made the most of the cold weather and enjoyed some frosty fun with snowball fights outside Ricky Road and sledging down Cow Hill on the Town Moor.
Share your Christmas memories with us
Get in touch with your photos and memories of Christmas in Newcastle as a student for your chance to be featured on our social media channels.