Thousands of people converged on Fort William at the weekend for two major Christmas events, including the arrival of Santa and his reindeer.
Children of all ages gathered in the Lochaber town’s High Street to see Father Christmas and The Cairngorm Reindeer team leave Cameron Square on Saturday morning led by the Lochaber Pipe Band.
And they followed his sleigh to the annual Rotary Club Christmas Festival and Craft and Food Producers’ Fair at the Nevis Centre.
The event offered a wide range of designer crafts and more than 70 stalls, as well as Santa’s Grotto, the Lochaber Community Wind Band, Buskers’ Corner and a grand raffle.
Rotary Club past president Sheana Fraser, who was one of the organisers, hailed the festival a great success, saying there had been an “excellent” turn out from the town and surrounding areas.
She said: “We normally start the fair at 10.30am, but it became very busy at certain times of the day, so we decided to start an hour earlier this year to spread it out a bit and it seems to have worked well.
“The Nevis Centre was very busy throughout the day. There were queues for Santa’s grotto and the stallholders reported a good trading day.
“It was great to see the local community out and a good atmosphere with everyone enjoying themselves.”
Mrs Fraser added that all the Rotary Club proceeds from the event would go to local good causes.
She was unable to say how much had been raised at this stage, but said the raffle on the door was about 50% up on last year.
And on Friday night, the High Street was packed with people who turned out to see the Christmas lights switched on and to enjoy the street entertainment and late night shopping.
This event was organised by Fort William Chamber of Commerce and the Town Team.
Town Team secretary Sue Keen said: “It was an amazing success. The weather was fine and there were more than 1,000 people in the High Street.
“Everyone had a fantastic time. The smiles on the faces of the children and the adults made all our hard work worthwhile.”