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THE LIVERPOOL HOME SPARKLING WITH NEARLY 30,000 LIGHTS THIS CHRISTMAS IN AID OF ALDER HEY
A house in Halewood will be dazzling with almost 30,000 lights when it is transformed into a Liverpool Christmas Light Show in aid of Alder Hey Children ’ s charity .
Couple Helen and Marty Walsh have been planning their spectacular Palmerston Drive show for more than a year before their 2021 show wraps up .
They ’ ve spent the last 12 months sourcing and adding new lighted festive elements that will double the number of lights and songs outside of their home .
And they ’ ve even included Sam Ryder ’ s Spaceman in the seasonal soundtrack , in a nod to Liverpool ’ s upcoming hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest .
The nightly shows raising money for Alder Hey begin at 6pm on Thursday December 1st with special guests Santa , the Grinch and the cheeky Elf handing out candy to children and they run until December 31 , when a special show is held at 11:30 p . m . will see in the New Year .
Last year , Helen and Martin raised just over £ 1,700 for Alder Hey through their brilliant efforts , so they decided to support the charity again , raising cash and contactless donations and holding a prize draw . Helen says they take inspiration from other light shows around the world , particularly from the US , which like to be big and bold with their Christmas decorations .
“ We ’ re always looking online for ideas and taking inspiration from the American shows ,” she explains . “ There are hundreds of different places that we source the different sequences from and then we adapt them to our design to make them work for us . It all has to fit together to create an overall display , so it ’ s all about trial and error – the sequencing program we use allows us to see if something we like looks right and if it does then buy it .”
“ The shows are between 25 and 50 minutes and we ’ ve broken the songs into sections this year , so there ’ s Christmas Modern , Christmas Instrumental , Christmas Classics and Disney and Movies .
“ The instrumental is the shortest show , that ’ s the 9pm show , and Christmas Modern , with songs like Katy Perry ’ s Cozy Little Christmas and Kylie ’ s Wonderful Christmastime , is the longest .”
After starting next Thursday at 6pm , the shows take place every evening at 6pm , 7pm , 8pm and 9pm .
The lights are ready for the big switch-on after the couple spent two weekends getting them all in place .
Helen says there will be some old favourites from last year ’ s show , with many new stars from the show including a lighted 3-foot Mickey Mouse spinner for little Disney fans and a Grand Rosa that ’ s almost 4ft is large and a whopping 1,392 has lights that create many different patterns .
Standing 10 feet tall and topped with a giant megastar , the illuminated Megatree is back after being one of the big attractions of 2021 . So many thousands of lights on a house should add up to a nightmarish electric bill , especially with the current high energy bills .
But Helen says thankfully the type of props they choose means the cost shouldn ’ t be too shocking . “ We run the show at around 30 % brightness because that ’ s the best level to see it , otherwise it can be blinding , and because the lights are all LED and low voltage and not every light is on at the same time , it actually is it costs less than putting up static string lights in front of your house .”
To find out more about the Liverpool Christmas Light Show , visit https :// liverpoolchristmaslightshow . co . uk . merseylife . com 15