THE Christmas lights switch on in Barnoldswick takes place on Saturday with an action-packed afternoon culminating in a spectacular lantern parade.

The event has attracted record numbers in recent years with thousands attending.

This year’s celebration has a distinctly Dickensian flavour to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the writer’s birth.

Shopkeepers and townsfolk will become Dickens characters for the day.

Children’s rides will operate on town centre streets, lantern-making workshops get under way at noon and Santa’s Grotto opens at 1pm.

The switch-on parade gets under way at 5.30pm with the final countdown at 6pm when more than 50,000 lights will be switched on.

The event is organised by Barnoldswick Town Council.