Every New Years Day, Cromer holds a truly fantastic firework display. We went along to see it last year as it was a week later due to bad weather and we were a little short on things to do that weekend. What we saw was so wonderful and the atmosphere in the town so lovely we thought we’d go again this year actually on 1st January!
We had also hired a beach hut from North Norfolk District Council this year for the Christmas period at a bargain £21.00 per week. This worked well as a place to get away from the elements when out for walks etc in Cromer and so we luckily had a lovely base for the evening.
The fireworks started at 5pm and ran for 12-14 minutes which was really spectacular, they were launched from the pier allowing the sea to reflect each explosion really adding to the stunning sight.
Our beach hut was on the Cromer West beach to the right of the pier as you look out to sea. This was a great position as we were close to the RNLI Henry Blogg Museum, which has a lift, cafe and toilets.
I would advise to get into Cromer by at least 4pm on the day as it gets amazingly busy. We parked at the Co-op car park right in the centre of town, this was a bold move but both years has paid off as people tend not to park there. It is worth noting you can only park for a maximum of two hours (£3.00- half of which is redeemable if you spend over £5.00 in the Co-op). With our little ones out in the evening it really was just about enough time to allow getting home and in bed at a decent time.
I’d also recommend that if you go along you take a picnic and a flask as all the restaurants, cafes and especially the fish and chip shops in the town get crazily busy. The queue for Mary Jane’s Fish and Chips was almost back to the Co-op food store wall (if you don’t know Cromer thats about 50 metres!)
We wandered through the town centre to our beach hut, via the church gardens where there was a beautiful steam organ playing and the church was open for visitors. As I noted earlier the atmosphere was really lovely with Christmas lights and the beautiful Christmas tree set in the church grounds.
Having popped to the loo, we installed ourselves in the beach hut, set our picnic out and waited, the beach and surrounding promenades get very busy (its estimated an additional 10,000 people come to the town for the event). It really is an amazing sight to see the onlookers waiting on the cliff top promenades and the surrounding beach areas. It felt very luxurious to have the beach hut, seats and a table, we even made a cup of tea for the firework donation collection bucket people!
Cromer fireworks is a real treat and for us felt like an excellent finale to the Christmas festivities. The kids loved being out in the dark and having the beach hut made it just slightly easier to keep an eye on the boys in relative comfort whilst enjoying the evening.
Thrifty Norfolk Mummy 