An X Factor finalist will switch on Cambridge’s Christmas lights. The illumination will take place on Sunday in Market Square, amidst a series of festive events.

Laura White, who has come eighth in the current series of The X Factor, will lead the City Council’s celebrations. She follows in the footsteps of Neighbours’ Stephanie McIntosh, who did the honours last year.

White, 21, was controversially voted off the programme last Saturday. Cheryl Cole, her mentor on the show, was the only one of the four judges to vote to keep her on. Simon Cowell, before voting against her, said, “First of all you were not the worst two singers tonight, so I don’t know what went wrong tonight; it was a joke…whatever I say is going to be unpopular.”

Cambridge students have reacted excitedly to the news. Trinity second-year Katie Cody said “I’ll be there!”

The main event will be preceded by a parade from the Grafton Centre to the main stage in Market Square at 4pm. The parade will feature the likes of Father and Mother Christmas, the Snow Queen on stilts and the infamous Ice Elf.

Local school choirs and bands will accompany the procession as well as a brass marching band, a samba band and dancers. There will also be roast chestnuts in Market Square.

“The lights will go off at around 11pm everyday,” commented a council spokeswoman. “The only ones that will be kept on later are those on Christ’s Pieces, staying on until 4am, purely for safety reasons.”

The festivities will be joined by ‘Cambridge on Ice’, the popular annual ice-skating attraction on Parker’s Piece, which opens tomorrow. The rink will be one-and-a-half times larger than last year. A ‘Taste of Germany’ licensed café will be situated on the ice rink, for the post-fall-over injury wind-down.

This weekend spells the start of the Cambridge Christmas – yet again eccentrically early – with themed bops, Secret Santa and full-on turkey, cranberry sauce and brandy-butter Formals coinciding with week 8. One student quipped: “By the time the rest of the country open their advent calendars, Cambridge will probably have started disposing of its Christmas trees for Cambridge-Twelfth-Night.”

Caedmon Tunstall-Behrens