Footage of town Christmas lights ceremony goes viral for hilariously awkward timing blunder

It’s safe to say that most people’s Christmases are likely to look rather different to usual this year.

With December almost upon us and a global pandemic still very much a part of our lives, the festive spirit is a little more melancholy than usual.

Still, fair play to those looking to inject a little normality into an otherwise rather strange festive season.

One such tradition that is still going strong is a ceremonial fanfare around switching on Christmas lights… in one town at least.

Bridgwater, Somerset decided to stick with its plans to turn it into an event, and invited the town mayor Leigh Redman and county councillor Peter Clayton to do the honours.

In a video of the event, the two men can be seen standing – wearing masks – on either side of a giant lever covered in tinsel, with a building in the background awaiting its moment of glory.

But as they begin the push the lever down, it starts to go horribly wrong, with the building lighting up half way through the process. The two men seem oblivious, which makes the unfortunate debacle even funnier.

The clip was posted on Twitter by the BBC Radio Somerset account with the caption “timing is everything”.

Followers agreed, with many thinking it was so unfortunate it fit right in with the rest of 2020.

Mostly people just found the whole debacle hilarious and charming.

People were pretty proud of the representation of their home too.

Even the town’s official Twitter account was in on the joke, as was the mayor.

As one person put it, at least we now know that the “tinsel covered Acme road runner detonator thing” isn’t actually how people turn on hundreds of strings of Christmas lights.

Every day’s a learning day!