Scotland’s National Book Town has launched Wigtown Wonderland – a month of festive fun for visitors and residents, complete with its own Christmas single.
There will be an abundance of events and activities for children, young people and adults from now until 1 January including a Christmas food and drink market, movies, carol singing, Santa’s grotto and even an ice rink.
As you’d expect there will also be lots of emphasis on reading and storytelling.
And anyone visiting the Wigtown Wonderland Facebook page will also be able to hear a newly recorded song by The Cochranes called I Can’t Believe It’s Christmas Time Again which is the official theme tune for the event – and which has also just been released online.
Written by Ian Cochrane, who performs the incredibly catchy song with his wife Joyce, it recalls the Christmases gone by when their daughter Helena was a pupil at the local primary school.
At that time there was an annual parade down the main street of the small Galloway town, a silver band playing festive tunes, and warming mugs of hot chocolate served in the County Buildings.
The couple, who run the Old Bank Bookshop, have been writing and performing for many years but only gained the confidence to start recording and releasing after they were selected to play live for a national radio show.
Joyce said: “It’s something we’d talked about for a long time but never had the confidence. We decided to start off with I Can’t Believe It’s Christmas Time Again.
“A couple of people heard it and liked it, then the Wigtown Wonderland organisers asked if they could use it to promote the event – we were so pleased and said yes straight away.
“It’s a song that’s so full of memories of wonderful Christmases in Wigtown, which has such an incredible community spirit, so we were really happy to help.”
In fact, they have gone one better and are donating 25% of the money raised from downloads of the song to Wigtown Book Festival.
And, if you want to hear Joyce and Ian live, they will be doing weekly busking sessions in the bookshop during Wigtown Wonderland.
Anne Barclay, operations director of Wigtown Festival Company, said: “Wigtown Wonderland is a real community effort, with so many people getting involved, it’s just great.
“The aim is to make the festive season as special as possible for people who live in the area and for visitors coming to Scotland’s National Book Town.
“Joyce and Ian have been incredibly generous by letting us use their song – and it’s perfect, completely capturing the spirit of Christmas and of our community.”
- For full details of what’s on see Facebook
- To download the song go to https://thecochranes.bandcamp.com/track/i-cant-believe-its-christmas-time-again.
