For many people, the Christmas festivities begin with the annual lantern walk at Trengwainton Garden, near Penzance.

The event has proved so popular that this year it’s been extended to two nights - Friday and Saturday, December 2 and 3, from 5.30 until 8.30pm.

Throughout November, staff and volunteers from the garden have gone into local schools to help children make withy and tissue paper lanterns. On both the lantern walk nights, these lanterns will be used to illuminate sections of the walled garden, along with flaming bamboo torches and hundreds of fairy lights.

In the orchard, families can visit a very special Father Christmas who’ll be dressed in traditional green for his garden setting and there’ll be warming stews, mulled wine and hog roast for sale. Bands and choirs will complete the festive atmosphere, including Penzance Orpheus ladies choir on the Friday and Pendeen Silver band on the Saturday night.

Marina Rule, visitor experience officer at Trengwainton who has organised the lantern walk for the past six years, said: "When we first came up with the idea in 2010, we had no idea if anyone would want to come out on a chilly December evening and would have been pleased if just a few had turned up. As it was, we were thrilled when over 300 people came through the gates in just two hours.

"Each year the numbers have gone up in leaps and bounds so in 2014 we extended the opening time by an hour in an effort to manage the numbers, but last year there were over 1,100 people. It’s become the go-to Christmas event that the local community have really taken to their hearts. So this year there’ll be the option of two nights to choose from. For the first time, we’re also going to issue timed tickets for visits to Father Christmas each night so that we can reduce the time that little legs have to spend queuing."

For more information about the lantern walk, visit nationaltrust.org.uk/trengwainton.