Reigate's lights come on at the Business Guild Christmas Fayre, and no 2026 date is published. Here are last year's times, and the borough date already fixed.

Two things are worth knowing before you plan a trip to see Reigate’s Christmas lights go on.

The first: Reigate does not run a standalone switch-on. The lights come on part-way through the Reigate Business Guild Christmas Fayre, which the Guild describes as “by far the busiest day of the year in Reigate”. The Fayre is the event; the switch-on is a moment inside it, late in the afternoon.

The second: there is no 2026 date. On 5 September the Guild’s own Christmas Fayre page still described the 2025 event in the past tense, and its What’s On calendar ran from a members’ evening on 16 September through to a Christmas social on 16 December without listing the Fayre at all. This page will be updated when the Guild publishes the date.

What the day looked like in 2025

The Guild’s own account of the last Fayre gives you the shape of the day, and it has not changed much in years:

  • Saturday 29 November 2025, 11:30 to 17:00.
  • Church Street closed from 06:00 to 19:00. That is a thirteen hour closure for a five and a half hour event, because of the build and the clear-up.
  • Stalls open 11:00 to 17:00.
  • Lights switched on at 16:30.
  • A stage at the western end of Church Street, with local schools, clubs and colleges performing through the day.
  • A food zone the Guild calls the Yuletide Tunnel, in Tunnel Road, with food stalls, a bar and live music.
  • A tombola and a chocolate tombola, both raising money for the lights.
  • Santa on the roof of the Old Town Hall after the switch-on.

The Guild’s Christmas Lights page adds the detail that makes sense of the fundraising: the Reigate lights cost about £15,000 a year to maintain, install and store, they cover eleven cross streets in the town centre, and they are switched on by the Mayor or Lady Mayor of Reigate and Banstead.

If the Guild keeps to its recent pattern of the last Saturday in November, 2026 would fall on Saturday 28 November. That is our inference from one published year, not a date the Guild has announced, so do not book anything on it.

The ice rink, and the free fireworks, are gone

If you remember Reigate’s switch-on as a bigger night, you are remembering Reigate on Ice. The borough council announced in October 2024 that the temporary rink would run in Priory Park from Friday 29 November to Wednesday 1 January, and that “a free Fireworks Display on Saturday 30 November will kick start the Reigate on Ice festivities and coincide with the Christmas light switch on event”.

The rink did not come back in 2025. On 5 September 2026 the reigateonice.com domain does not resolve at all. There is no rink and no free display attached to the Reigate switch-on now, and nothing has replaced them.

The rest of the borough

Four other places in Reigate and Banstead switch lights on, and they are run by four different organisations, which is why the dates never line up.

Tadworth is the only one already confirmed for 2026. The borough council has it on its events list for Wednesday 25 November, 15:30 to 19:00, with two switch-ons in one evening. We have the full running order on our Tadworth Christmas lights page.

Redhill switches on at the Belfry Shopping Centre. The centre’s 2025 event ran on Saturday 22 November from 11am with the lights on at 4.30pm, alongside live panto performances, free face painting and Father Christmas, and the centre says the tree is the biggest in Redhill. Nothing has been published for 2026: the Belfry’s news page has run nothing festive since November 2025.

Banstead switches on the High Street lights and the village Christmas tree at a community event run by Banstead Rotary with the Banstead Village Residents Association. The 2025 event was on Thursday 27 November, with stalls, children’s games on The Orchard and Father Christmas arriving on the Rotary sleigh. A warning if you go looking for it: the club’s old bansteadrotary.com address is no longer the club’s. It now serves an unrelated overseas gambling site. The club’s live site is bansteadsuttonnonsuch.com.

Horley is the outlier, and much later. Its Christmas Tree Lights Switch On is run by HATS, the Horley Association of Town Supporters, in the town centre pedestrian precinct. In 2025 it was on Thursday 11 December at 5pm.

What it means for you

  • Reigate’s switch-on has no 2026 date. Watch the Reigate Business Guild, not the council.
  • Expect a late-November Saturday, with the lights on at about 4.30pm and Church Street shut from 6am.
  • Tadworth on Wednesday 25 November is the only confirmed 2026 date in the borough.
  • Redhill, Banstead and Horley all announce separately, and Horley’s is usually a fortnight after everyone else’s.
  • Do not plan on an ice rink or fireworks in Priory Park. Both have gone.

Sources

More from Reigate News: parking in Reigate, roadworks and travel and things to do in Reigate.