🎄 CHRISTMAS IS COMING TO HAMILTON!
We’re delighted to launch Hamilton’s Christmas 2026 programme, bringing together festive events, entertainment, shopping and family activities across Hamilton town centre!
There’s plenty to look forward to this year, and we’re inviting our local businesses to get involved and help make Hamilton a fantastic place to visit this Christmas. Check out this years festive programme via our festive website https://hamiltonevents.my.canva.site/hamilton-christmas
✨ FESTIVE EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
🎄 Hamilton Christmas Light Switch On – Saturday 21 November
Join us on Quarry Street from 10am to 5.30pm for one of the biggest days in Hamilton’s festive calendar! Enjoy our outdoor Christmas Market, live entertainment from 11.30am, Smiths Family Funfair on Townhead Street and the big switch-on featuring our Hamilton Hero winner.
🎅 COVEY Christmas Gala – Saturday 5 December
Join us in the Regent Shopping Centre from 10am to 4pm for festive entertainment, Hamilton Market and a visit from Santa between 12pm and 3.30pm! This event is brought to you in collaboration with local charity COVEY.
🎭 Wee Jock and the Beanstalk – Saturday 12 December
Our popular community Christmas panto returns for its third year, this time at Low Parks Museum. A fantastic family experience, with all tickets £6!
🎶 Our Town, Our Christmas – Saturday 19 December
A festive celebration of music and entertainment for the whole family, produced by Drama Kirk.
🌈 Lanarkshire Pride Winter Warmer – Saturday 19 December
Organised by Lanarkshire Pride, this welcoming, family-friendly festive celebration takes place at Low Parks Museum from 11am to 4pm. Enjoy music, performances and Christmas cheer, bringing LGBTQ+ people, families and allies together while helping tackle loneliness and isolation over the festive season. Everyone is welcome!
🎁 LOCAL BUSINESSES – GET INVOLVED!
Are you organising a Christmas event, special activity, festive experience or something exciting for shoppers this December?
We’d love to feature it!
Our dedicated Hamilton Christmas website brings together activities happening across the town centre, helping residents and visitors discover what’s on and encouraging people to shop, visit and spend locally.
Businesses can submit their Christmas activities to be included in the programme.
🎄 EXPLORE THE CHRISTMAS PROGRAMME & LIST YOUR ACTIVITIES
https://hamiltonevents.my.canva.site/hamilton-christmas
📈 HAMILTON TOWN CENTRE FOOTFALL UPDATE
The latest estimated footfall figures, provided by Placeinformatics, show an overall year-to-date increase of 0.2% across the wider Hamilton monitoring area compared with the same period in 2025.
Top 6 year on year street performance to date:
- 📍 Quarry Street (former pedestrianised area): +19.9%
- 📍 Regent Shopping Centre: +13.9%
- 📍 Quarry Street: +13.3%
- 📍 Brandon Street: +11.0%
- 📍 Cadzow Street: +9.5%
These positive trends are encouraging as we approach the important Christmas trading period, with our festive programme providing further opportunities to attract visitors and support local businesses.
Source: Placeinformatics – estimated year-to-date footfall comparisons against 2025.
📸 FREE BUSINESS PHOTOGRAPHY & SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTION
Are you making the most of our free business photography and social media promotion scheme?
Hamilton Our Town provides professional photography and promotional support to help showcase local businesses, products and services across our social media channels.
It’s a fantastic opportunity to raise your business profile, reach new customers and benefit from additional exposure through Hamilton Our Town.
Not signed up yet?
📧 Contact gavin@hamiltonbid.org to get involved!
🏙️ YOUR BUSINESS – MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN HAMILTON
We’d like to take the opportunity to thank our business community for your continued support.
Hamilton Our Town is a small, not-for-profit organisation, supported by a volunteer Board of Directors. While our resources are modest, our ambition has always been to make the greatest possible impact for our town.
Your contributions make this work possible, and throughout 2026 we’ve continued to deliver for our businesses and wider community.
🎪 Events & Community: We’ve hosted multiple free-to-attend events, including a month-long summer festival, International Womans’ Day, Scotland Love Local Gala, Easter Gala as examples. Much of this activity is carried out in partnership with local organisations that have kindly given their time to contribute. Whilst budgets are very modest, through inventive methods, strong collaboration and determination, together we’ve managed to pull off another year of activity here in the town centre. These events aren’t just about attracting visitors, which is of course is important – they also play an important role in creating wider value for the area through placemaking, bringing people together, strengthening community connections, creating a vibrant town centre and an identity for the area.
📢 Marketing Hamilton: We’ve delivered radio and online advertising campaigns, promoting Hamilton as a destination for shopping, leisure and entertainment. Hamilton Our Town remains the only organisation consistently delivering dedicated, professional marketing and promotion of our town centre.
📸 Advertising: Around 180 businesses are benefiting from promotion across our growing social media channels, with access to professional photography from Gavin as frequently as every six weeks.
🤝 A Voice for Hamilton’s Future: Through our representation on the Pride in Place Board, and through partnerships with the local authority, the town centre business community has a significant voice in discussions about Hamilton’s future. We look forward to seeing the results of this work in the new year and beyond through Pride In Place.
Small organisation. Modest resources. A commitment to making a real difference.
None of this would be possible without the contributions of our levy-paying businesses and the dedication of our volunteers who generously give their time, knowledge and experience to support Hamilton as board members. If you would like to get involved contact us at info@hamiltonbid.org.
As we approach another important Christmas trading period, we’d like to extend our sincere thanks to everyone who continues to support Hamilton Our Town.
Together, we’re working towards a stronger, more vibrant and welcoming Hamilton town centre.
Thank you for your continued support!
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