Norwich City football legends Darren Huckerby and Iwan Roberts will be joined by Diss Carnival Queen Charlotte Cox and the winner of the Diss Christmas Lights Colouring Competition, Zachairiah Mitchell, to throw the switch and set the streets alight ready for the late-night shopping event.

Messrs Huckerby and Roberts were invited by Carl Moore, of Moco Limited, to join the crowds in Diss and bring some celebrity sparkle to the proceedings, while Zachairiah earned his place at the switch-on by beating other schoolchildren aged five to 12 with his winning painting depicting 'What I Like About Christmas'.

The Diss Infants School pupil also won £25 in vouchers from Toybox Toys. In second place in the competition was Adam Neal and Brandon Priehs was third, winning £15 and £10 respectively from Toybox Toys.

The standard of entry was considered so high that the judges decided to give £5 each to the next ten best entrants, provided by Diss Van Centre, and there was a consolation prize of a pencil for every entrant from The Fabric Shop in St Nicholas Street.

On Saturday, three members of Diss Town Council – Graham Minshull, Beth Dewhurst and Jane Trippett-Jones – took the Christmas spirit to heart and brought smiles to shoppers' faces in Tesco by donning teddy bear, penguin and fairy outfits. Their collecting buckets yielded more than £200 to help swell the Christmas Lights Fund.

Diss Museum is open 10am-6pm today as part of the late-night shopping event. Visitors can look at the exhibits at the venue in Market Place for free, although donations are welcome.