OUR little champions of the year, four outstanding children recognised for their courage and achievements, will be able to light up Dunfermline this Christmas.

Dunfermline Press award-winners Cameron Urquhart, Alfie Thomson and Michael and Charlotte Gartshore, will join Santa on stage to switch on the town’s festive illuminations at 5.30pm on Saturday November 16.

There was a doubt about whether it would go ahead after Dunfermline Delivers, the Business Improvement District company that organises the event, lost its renewal ballot and was wound up last month.

The annual fireworks display, which they also ran, has been cancelled this year but thankfully £100,000 of funding from Fife Council will allow a new community interest company, Delivering Dunfermline, to launch and our little champions will light up the town in front of thousands of people at the Glen Gates.

Chris Foote, of Delivering Dunfermline, said: “The Christmas lights switch on is a long-standing community event in the town and we’re looking forward to kicking off the festive season and welcoming families to Dunfermline town centre for this much-loved event.”

Ahead of the switch-on, and following the success of last year’s Santa dash, there will be even more red-suited Father Christmases racing down the High Street at noon.

Kingdom FM will play host for the day playing music and leading the all-important count down to the illuminations.

In the lead up to switch on, Kerr James, the 14-year-old Scottish star of Britain’s Got Talent, will perform the tracks, such as Elton John’s Rocketman and Otis Redding’s Try a Little Tenderness, that blew away Simon Cowell and his fellow judges.

The Cambuslang teenager has come a long way since he started busking on Buchanan Street in Glasgow a couple of years ago.

The Kingsgate Shopping Centre will also be hosting activities. Families can join Daft for Crafts downstairs while a crafters market including food stalls will be upstairs in the Centre.

The Christmas Parade, which starts at 4.30pm from outside Marks & Spencer, will travel down towards the Glen Gates and include the likes of Boxer Beats accordion band, Santa’s Sleigh, Dunfermline’s Pipe Band and lots of community groups, all full of the Christmas spirit.