Pavements were packed with people to greet the long procession on Saturday night. More trailers than ever before were involved, meaning that hundreds of people took part, dressed as everything from snowmen to Santa Claus.
The vehicles set off from Les Beaucamps High School just after 6pm and it took more than 10 minutes for all the machines to hit the road. They made their way slowly around the coast from Vazon to Vale Church, and then into Town, before cutting across the island to the airport and Perelle and back to Vazon.
The entire route took over two hours.
Watch the Christmas cavalcade setting off from Les Beaucamps High School
This was the fifth year that the event has taken place, and this year it was raising money for charity Ernie’s Angels, which provides financial assistance towards palliative and funeral expenses of children in the Bailiwick.
Organiser Ben Le Page said that about 90 tractors had signed up, but there was also an illuminated combine harvester, an ambulance and firefighting turntable ladder.
‘It’s pretty exciting,’ he said.
‘There are more and more trailers this year, with people in them. It’s mad.’
In one of those trailers was Lucy Falla, 17. She and her friends had donned matching Spider-Man pyjamas and were riding inside a gingerbread house, behind the tractor.
‘This is our first time and it’s pretty exciting,’ she said.
Guernsey Fire and Rescue’s turntable ladder was decorated with six sets of lights and an illuminated bow. Watch commander Oliver Patch was behind the wheel. He was off-duty but said that there was a chance that the vehicle might have been called into action during the course of the evening. But as the ladder was used for more specialised incidents, it was the best one to decorate and take on the parade.
‘The first year I did it in a tractor, but that was a bit chilly,’ said Mr Patch, who was taking part for a third time, dressed in a festive jumper.
‘This has heated seats. It’s also a good chance to engage with the community.’
A good crowd came to look over the tractors and wave them off from Les Beaucamps.
Among them were Emma and Samuel Ward, with their 10-month-old daughter Amelia.
‘I think it’s really great for the little ones and she loves the twinkly lights,’ Mrs Ward said.
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.