Harrogate is the first town in UK to get its own Christmas song

The much-anticipated song’s coordinator, Simon Cotton, was beaming with pride as he unveiled Merry Christmas Harrogate with the track’s co-writer Joe Pearce and its performers, The Straymen, in front of a large crowd of local business leaders, charities, the Mayor of Harrogate Coun Chris Aldred and media people including the BBC.

At a time when some councils have been forced to cut back on their festive offering for 2024, Harrogate is promising a feast of fun bigger than ever before as Harrogate Bid, Harrogate District Chamber of Commerce and community leaders join forces to bring a touch of sparkle.

Mr Cotton, who is MD of the HRH Group, which owns The Yorkshire Hotel, White Hart and their associated bars the Pickled Sprout and Fat Badger said: “I believe Harrogate is the most Christmassy town in the UK.

"We’ve got the fantastic Christmas market and more lights than ever.

“The North Pole Post Office is beautiful, we’ve got the Christmas shop window competition, the ice rink is up at the showground.

"There’s just so much Christmassy stuff that goes on here, the only thing missing was a song!”

The new song, which was premiered on Your Harrogate radio station, is available to download for free on Spotify.

It will also be played at Harrogate Theatre for panto audiences.

The song’s stunning video was shot by Adam Chandler’s Reel Film.

‘The Straymen’ were formed specially for the song with friends Harry Arnison and Harvey Burns joined by Harvey’s six-year-old daughter Isabella.

The band spent a number of weeks developing the music and lyrics before professionally recording it in local music studio the Woodlands with producer John Shepherd.

Harvey Burns said: “Who doesn’t love a great Christmas Song? When Simon asked us to be involved, we jumped at the chance.”

On aiming for the Christmas number one, Simon Cotton said: "It's only a few years ago a song about a sausage roll made it to number one, so why not?”