Cleveleys Christmas Lights will shine bright from the Switch on event on Saturday 22 November 2025 to Epiphany on 6 January 2026. It’s a collaborative, year-round effort of organisation, fundraising and installation!
Cleveleys Christmas Lights
Back in the days before Care for Cleveleys, the town didn’t have anything in the way of Christmas Lights – except a Christmas tree. But the group has made it a mission to bring festive cheer to our friendly streets, adding extra features each year. There’s still a long way to go – but it’s much better than it was!
Here’s what to look out for in 2025:
- A 22ft town tree outside Specsavers, complete with fairy lights and display of remembrance hearts
- Festoon lights on lamp-posts from the promenade to Cleveleys Square.
- Four snowflake lighting features on lamp-posts at the crescent.
- Festoons and fairy lights around the clock garden.
- Spotlights, icicles and lighting on the clock shelter at the roundabout.
- Festoon lights at the bus station
- Five new wooden planters with rooted 5ft trees
- 6m Christmas greetings banner across the M&S alley
- Lights on the palm trees in the grey pots and in Mary’s Garden
- Lights on the new arch at Derby Road East car park
Paying for Cleveleys Christmas Lights
Care for Cleveleys received a very welcome grant of £5000 this year from Wyre Council. The total cost of this years lights is around £9000, plus the cost of the Switch on event, insurance and electricity. The rest of the cost comes from public donations, private donations, fundraising, and shop takings.
Just for clarity — the tree alone (delivery and removal) is £1,500 and lighting it another £500. Installing and removing features is roughly £100 each. There’s insurance and compliance on top. This isn’t “B&Q lights and a ladder.” Commercial installs need certified equipment, licensed installers, and insurance.
Installing the Christmas Lights
Daniel Thornton is one of the Care for Cleveleys team. He now looks after the Christmas lights display – and the town would be much dimmer without him. He’s been out in the rain at 5am meeting contractors and rewiring lights at 10pm. He personally made the new planters, building them with his kids on weekends. Plus the endless time spent handling applications and planning as well as daily checks due to the weather.
On top of that other volunteers are going backward and forward with planning and engineers to have more permanent features installed that will make a difference all year. And it’s being done so Cleveleys looks like somewhere worth being this Christmas.
Developing the Display
Christmas lights in the public realm are astonishingly expensive. It’s hard earned and quickly spent, so the team always tries to spend money wisely. Where possible investment is made into buying equipment so that the display can be extended each year with new additions. By doing this a growing stock of long-term lighting is being amassed which will last for some years.
Once this years lights are in place and switched on we’ll be asking people what they think would be nice to develop next. It’s easier to see opportunities for bigger and better when you can look at the current lights. Please get involved and share your ideas. There are a lot of restrictions and problems with locations, power supplies and of course the weather, but some things will be do-able!
Special Thanks
Little by little, year by year, Cleveleys is looking more and more festive. There’s still a long way to go, but hard work and community effort is making it happen.
It’s the amazing Care for Cleveleys volunteers who are bringing Christmas back to Cleveleys. They are the ones who organise and coordinate all of the festive lighting. This includes buying products from various suppliers and securing licenses/permissions.
Raising the money to pay for it all is also carried out by the C4C volunteers – and another huge task. Wyre Council provides a generous grant each year, but the total cost is significantly more.
And town centre traders play a huge part in making the own light up. With limited public infrastructure, the display relies on individual shops and landlords to provide fixing points and electrical connections. Individual businesses also pick up the cost of the electric where they provide a connection.
Ryan and Stewart from RS Electrical are a huge help too. Larger items are installed by specialist contractors, but Ryan and Stewart are brilliant at the small jobs.
Without everyone working together, none of this would be possible. So thank you to everyone who plays a part, no matter how small.
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