London’s Victoria Park to transform into a winter wonderland

Roughly 20,000 people are expected in Victoria Park on Friday night to watch it transform into a winter wonderland.

The annual Lighting of the Lights event begins at 6:15 p.m., with the lights set to come on at 6:52 p.m. Friday.

For the parks and recreation department, it’s a day that’s been months in the making, with planning beginning in July or August.

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“We do our ordering of our Christmas lights and fine-tuning all of our equipment and then come, probably the start of October, that’s when we start preparing to do the install of the over 75,000 lights,” supervisor Scott Preece told Global News Radio 980 CFPL.

“Victoria Park is a very healthy park. The trees in the park are also very, very healthy. So we have to compensate for the growth of the trees. We also have to compensate for the squirrel damage to our lights because as we start to install the lights, squirrels like to think of them as being nuts and we’re constantly fighting with them.”

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Preece noted that while the unusually cold weather made set-up a little more difficult this year, it did seem to make the squirrels less disruptive than usual.

“We also have to bring in the five large Christmas trees that we put on the band-shell. That’s quite a process as well because those are quite large and quite heavy. There are other things that we bring in, too. We bring in our ground displays — there’s the nativity scene and there’s also the Santa’s sleigh and the reindeer.”

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Santa’s house has also returned to Victoria Park for a fourth year.  The house is entirely volunteer-based with donations from photos with Santa, who’s expected to arrive by 7 p.m. Friday, going to the Teresina Larizza Charities (TLC) Foundation in memory of Lauren Edgerton.

“Lauren was a beautiful four-year-old who battled cancer for most of her life and she lost her battle in September and I was very close with Lauren,” said Leo Larizza of the TLC Foundation.

“For the time that she was suffering, we tried to do the best to put smiles on her face. We sent her on trips and we sent her to shows and her favourite things and we did a lot for Lauren. I wanted to dedicate it in memory of her so people realized that all the funds raised at Santa’s house go to help children like Lauren.”

Larizza says Santa will be there every day from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays he will also be there from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Londoners will also be able to view the winter wonderland that is Victoria Park from the 12th floor of City Hall from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday. The observation deck will also be open to the public for several days and times throughout December.