A “SMALL scale Bath Christmas Market” will materialise in the heart of Malmesbury tomorrow night – and the organisers are hoping for a touch of frost to top it off.

The town’s now traditional late-night shopping event will see four streets closed to make way for a string of festive stalls and huts along with fairground rides, a Christmas parade and, for the first time, a nativity feature.

Several animals including a donkey, a Shetland pony, a goat, an alpaca and some lambs will be in St Aldhelm’s churchyard to add to the proceedings.

Kate Wareham, secretary of the Malmesbury Chamber of Commerce, which organises the event, said: “It’s always a really fun night that people look forward to. The nativity feature is a first and that will add to it all.”

High Street, Gloucester Street, Oxford Street and Abbey Row will be closed to traffic shortly before the late-night shopping event begins at 6pm.

Around 30 minutes later local youngsters will join Santa in a Father Christmas Parade along the High Street to his grotto at Market Cross. There will be carols from Malmesbury Music Academy and the Malmesbury Community Choir, while children from St Joseph’s School will join the animals for the nativity play throughout the three-hour-long festivities.

Mrs Wareham said: “We will have a number of wooden huts with lights. It’s going to be very Christmassy. It will be like a small-scale Bath Christmas Market. I do hope the weather remains frosty because that really adds to the atmosphere.”

They are expecting around 500 people but Mrs Wareham stressed that they still needed volunteers to help with marshalling, even if only for an hour or so.

She added: “It would be great if we could get a few more people to help out, even at this late stage. It’s going to be a really lovely night,” she added.

Anyone wishing to help out can contact Mrs Wareham on 07739 891610.