Shame on you

All right, the day wasn't the good old Victorian Fayre by any stretch of the imagination, and the lights in the town may be a bone of contention, but it isn't just decorations and costumes that make a Christmas fayre.

There can still be a sense of community without the paraphernalia that normally goes with the festive season, and the people who struggled to keep the day alive on Friday proved just that.

The schoolchildren who braved the elements and the teachers who worked long and hard at teaching lyrics and tunes should be commended. The youngsters realised from the start that they could still have fun on Friday, and the excited looks on their faces as they sang showed just that.

They were not worried that hardly anybody else bothered to get into the spirit of things. They just enjoyed entertaining the many people who stood in the cold to watch them sing and dance.

Just because there was no official committee organising the day, it doesn't mean the people of Wharfedale cannot organise themselves, surely?

Next year, hopefully, things will be back to normal and the Victorian Fayre will return with a bang, but this year's efforts (and lack of efforts) have just gone to show how much things have changed.

Obviously the days have gone when communities rallied around to celebrate the festive season together, no matter what stood in the way.

WHICHEVER way you look at it, the Christmas lights in Otley are little short of a disaster. Christmas is traditionally a happy time, bright, cheerful, with lots of colour and noise. This year Otley resembles a ghost town, where the festive season appears to have passed it by.

Contrast this with the appearance of Burley-in-Wharfedale a few miles down the road. Their lights are a joy to behold, and no doubt give the villagers a real 'feel good' factor.

They also make Otley look a dull old town indeed.