Slough's last town centre switch-on was on 23 November 2024. Nothing is booked for 2026, and the council cut its own switch-on as a saving in 2023.

The last full Christmas lights switch-on event in Slough town centre was on Saturday 23 November 2024. Nothing has been announced for 2026, and nothing appeared in 2025 either. The lights themselves still go up on the High Street. What has gone is the ceremony.

Two separate things stopped, at different times and for different reasons, which is why the answer to “is there a Slough switch-on this year” is more complicated than it should be.

The council’s own switch-on was cut in 2023

Slough Borough Council used to run a corporate events programme. Its equality impact assessment for budget saving RES-2324-11c set out “the proposal to stop providing public outdoor events including Bonfire and Firework Spectacular, Canal Festival, Festive Fun, Christmas Lights, Christmas Tree and switch on event”, together with the deletion of the marketing post that organised them. (Slough Borough Council, consolidated EIAs for the Chief Operating Officer directorate, scrutiny meeting 1 December 2022)

The assessment is honest about the effect: most of those events were free, most similar activities in Slough are not, and several of them marked Christmas.

The saving formed part of RES-2324-11, £0.150m, described in the directorate’s budget presentation as a “cessation of some corporate outdoor events”. (Slough Borough Council, COO Budget 2023/24 presentation) Cabinet recommended the 2023/24 budget to full Council on 27 February 2023. (Slough Borough Council, agenda item 122)

The BID picked it up, then stopped listing it

After the council pulled out, Slough BID ran the switch-on with Asian Star Radio. The 2024 event was in the Town Square and on the High Street from 1pm to 6pm on Saturday 23 November, free to attend, with a Christmas market, a mini fair, Slough Youth Choir, Slough’s Got Talent winners, an ABBA tribute, the Grinch, Father Christmas, a laser show and a snow machine. Raghav headlined and the Mayor switched the lights on. (Slough BID events calendar; Slough Express, 6 November 2024; Slough Express, 1 December 2024)

That is the last one on the BID’s own calendar. Nothing was listed for November 2025. What the BID ran instead that December was Santa’s Bus, 13 to 15 December 2025, and a Santa’s Grotto, 21 to 24 December 2025. Its calendar currently has no event of any kind after 21 April 2026. (Slough BID events)

Langley still has one, and the council announces it

The one switch-on Slough Borough Council still tells people about is Langley’s. At the full Council meeting on 27 November 2025, the Mayor’s communications recorded that “the Christmas Lights Switch On in Langley would take place on Wednesday, 3rd December at 6pm at the Harrow Market and all were invited to attend and support this event”. (Slough Borough Council, Mayor’s communications, Council, 27 November 2025)

No equivalent line about a town centre event appears in that item. A 2026 Langley date has not been published yet. The Mayor’s communications item at the November full Council meeting is where it has appeared before, so that is the thing to watch.

What is actually confirmed for Christmas 2026 in Slough

Very little, this early. As at 5 September:

  • The council’s own events calendar, set to the full list, holds five entries for the whole borough, none of them festive and none in the Town Square or on the High Street. (Slough Borough Council events)
  • Slough BID’s calendar holds nothing after April 2026.
  • The Curve has its winter family show, Twinkle Twinkle, 21 to 23 December, six performances, tickets from £8. That is covered on our Slough pantomime and Christmas shows page.

If a town centre switch-on does return, the pattern from 2024 says it will be a Saturday afternoon in the second half of November, announced two to three weeks ahead, and the announcement will come from the BID rather than the council.

Where the lights actually are

The lights are strung along the High Street and, in previous years, at Farnham Road and Harrow Market in Langley as well. That was the arrangement the council described in 2021, the last year it explained publicly why there was no ceremony: the lights were illuminated in all three places “but they will not be turned on in ceremonial fashion”. (Slough Express, 11 November 2021)

Parking and getting in

The High Street is pedestrianised at the Queensmere end, so this is a park-and-walk trip. Council car park tariffs, the Blue Badge concession and the nine park and leisure sites that started charging in April are all on our parking in Slough page. Check Slough roadworks and travel before driving in on an event afternoon.

Still to be confirmed

  • Any 2026 town centre switch-on, expected from Slough BID in late October or early November if it happens at all.
  • Langley’s 2026 switch-on date, historically announced in the Mayor’s communications at the November full Council meeting.
  • The BID’s 2026 festive programme, which in 2025 was a Santa’s bus and a grotto rather than a switch-on.

We recheck the BID calendar and the council’s committee papers through November and update this page.