Looks like a possible success.

The "Old Hands" who used to be responsible for the Christmas lights retired and were never, properly, replaced: neither were the lights. For a town its size they can only be described as "Nobbut moderate".
This year the sortof compensated by having a "Winter Festival" OMG!! Are we pandering to the P.C. police or haven't they notice that "30th November to 31st December" includes Christmas?
The kick off was a town centre more full of revellers than I've seen for many a long moon today. Heralded as "The winter droving" there was a helter skelter, an assortment of entertainment and food from various corners of the world and it certainly looked, from what we saw of it that "a good time was had by all".

I can't swear for the retails, not being one any more. I hope they flourished.