Illuminated tractors return to the Cotswolds

There is a particular kind of Christmas in the Cotswolds that you will not find anywhere else, and it is about to roll back into town. The Festive Farmers Charity Tractor Tour is one of the region's longest-running holiday traditions, and the main event is set for Saturday 19 December, when around 40 tractors, each draped in thousands of lights and colourful baubles, make their way from the Cotswold villages right into the heart of Cheltenham.

The evening begins in Shipton at 17:00, and from there the convoy winds its way through Withington, Andoversford, Charlton Kings and Prestbury, before heading along Bath Road and pulling into Cheltenham town centre at 19:30. If you are planning to catch it from the roadside, it helps to know roughly when it will pass your way: Withington at 17:15, Andoversford at 17:35, Charlton Kings at 18:08, Prestbury at 18:40 and Bath Road at 19:20. Watching the convoy from the pavement costs nothing, which is a big part of why it pulls crowds from across Gloucestershire every December.

Behind the lights, there is a serious amount of work going on. The tour is run entirely by volunteers from the local farming community, with a group of businesses lending a hand along the way, including DEYA Brewing, Hughes Paddison, Uncommon Distillery, Ski Tyres, R & R Catering, Agrii and Coxhorne Glamping. This year, the money raised goes to Rainbow Trust Children's Charity and Dementia UK, and the scale of what a few villages can pull together is worth noting: last year the tour raised £8,981 through the GiveWheel fundraising platform, Gift Aid included. If you want to chip in, donations can be made online via GiveWheel, and UK taxpayers can tick the Gift Aid box to add an extra 25% at no cost to themselves.

John Close, a Cheltenham-based farmer and spokesperson for Festive Farmers, has welcomed the return of the tractors, and the whole thing remains firmly rooted in the local agricultural community. It is a family-friendly night out in the truest sense, with the convoy passing through the villages rather than being fenced off, so the best way to see it is simply to find a spot along the route and wait for the lights to appear.

If you cannot make the main Saturday run, there may be a second chance. Two additional rural village tours are provisionally scheduled for Monday 21 and Tuesday 22 December, though those are still subject to confirmation, so it is worth keeping an eye on the organisers' updates before you commit to a second night. For now, the Saturday tour is the one to build your plans around.

For anyone who has never seen it, the appeal is simple enough: a line of farm machinery, usually seen working the fields, turned into something festive and bright and parading through the villages after dark. It is a gentle, community-led tradition that has become a fixture of the Gloucestershire Christmas calendar, and at no charge to watch, it is an easy one to build into your December plans. The tour's home base sits around the GL50 9SA postcode, and for the full route and any last-minute changes, the organisers keep everything up to date at festivefarmers.co.uk.