Simon Boddy/Ambitious PR
The organisers raised over £15,000 last year for two charities
A Christmas lights display, with over 150,000 lights, will return again this year to raise money for charities.
The Winterbourne Wonderland is held in Winterbourne Down, near Bristol, at the home of Ricky and Chrissie Fenning, where a host of Christmas themed displays will be shown, including: animatronic butterflies, forest display and a life size wishing well.
The lights will switch on at 17:00, 18:00 and 19:00 GMT on Saturday. They will switch off again at 17:30 and 18:30 and will remain on after the 19:00 switch on until 21:00.
The money raised from fundraising will go to The Grand Appeal, a children’s hospital charity in Bristol, and Suicide Prevention UK.
Mr Fenning said Suicide Prevention UK was, “a really deserving charity [who] go out of their way to help people that are in crisis.”
Rachael Williams from Suicide Prevention UK said being recognised on a local level is great.
She added: “The extra exposure as well as the fundraising really goes a long way, because the more people we can help locally, the better”
The charity had patrol teams that go on the streets to help people in crisis in across the South West.
Simon Boddy/Ambitious PR
A host of Christmas themed displays will be shown
Mr Fenning said the display attracted many visitors last year, easily reaching 10,000.
He said: “Christmas Eve was crazy; we gridlocked Winterbourne.” The set up takes two months, and is mainly carried out by Mr Fenning.
The display is sponsored by many local charities, and Mr Fenning said, “without [them] we wouldn’t be able to do what we’re doing”.
The display has a donation station and coin box, with QR codes also dotted around so visitors can donate to the charities.
There are road closures and roadworks in the area, so visitors are urged plan their route ahead of time.
Parking is limited on the surrounding roads but there is additional parking on Hicks Common Road which is only a few minutes walk away.