THE countdown has begun so rev up your engines and dash into Christmas mode.

Never mind the advertisements that have been warning us about the coming Christmas for the last three months.

Never mind the shops stacked with Christmas goodies and with not a costume to be seen by Halloween afternoon.

Those, of course, are reminders that the season is coming but it is when the towns switch on their Christmas lights that we know that it is really here.

Having lived nearly 50 years of my life in the southern hemisphere, cold, dark Christmases still feel quite magical to me.

The individual house lights are wonderful and there can be no such thing as tacky at this time of year!

Well, one exception could be the Nativity set I bought in my first, over-excited northern hemisphere Christmas. Its LED flashing lights were something to behold!

The wonderful thing here is that it appears that every town, no matter what their size, gets into the Christmas spirit.

There are tiny villages in tiny parishes that would never be able to afford to light their streets. Instead, they hold a Christmas festival where there are still fun and games which climax with a Christmas tree being lit up.

And much of the credit for this goes to big business - in this case, Iggesund  near Workington which gives out many beautiful Christmas trees to these parish and town councils.

There is one town that deserves special mention, not just because of what the council does, but also the people.

Anyone heading to Carlisle will have driven through the long main street of Aspatria.

In fact it is so long that trying to light it all is near impossible. Instead, an appeal goes out to residents to decorate their own Queen and King Street homes. And again, big business - in this case Sealy beds - offer a new double mattress as a raffle prize.

This year is going to be a tough one for many and it might be that the streets of Aspatria are slightly dimmer than usual due to the hike in power bills.

But whatever happens, we can almost guarantee that the turnout for the Christmas light switch-on will attract hundreds and we wish every one of them a happy Christmas.