The Guilherme Pinto Square will have lots of animation with Father Christmas' house, the enchanted forest, the elves' workshop and several music and dance shows. Municipality invests in low energy consumption solutions
Praça Guilherme Pinto will host a recreation of Father Christmas Village with specific decorative elements, such as Santa's house, the enchanted forest and the elves' workshop, a train station and a children's train, as well as animation and interactive moments and virtual reality experiences. Admission is free.
A giant Christmas tree, about 30 metres tall, which transforms itself, changing colour and pattern, marks this fun space.
The Christmas Village has extra entertainment on weekends and holidays. The public can watch choreographed music and dance shows alluding to the Christmas season with various sessions throughout the event.
The Christmas Village can be visited until 8 January during the following opening hours: Monday to Friday from 3 pm to 7 pm and Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from 1 and 8 December from 11 am to 8 pm. On 24 and 31 December the opening hours will be from 11am to 1pm and it will be closed on 25 December and 1 January.
Even in a year of energy containment, the municipality wanted to maintain the tradition because it considers that Christmas lights play an important role in the strategy to boost the local economy of the municipality. Thus, it bet on environmentally friendly solutions considering the need to reduce energy consumption, while ensuring the strengthening of the attractiveness of local commerce during the Christmas season.
The most emblematic locations linked to tradition, culture, tourist flows and the local economy were chosen, with special emphasis on the areas with the highest concentration of traditional commerce, municipal markets, churches, squares and gardens, but also the main points of entry into the municipality or the connection between parishes. The president of the Municipal Assembly, Palmira Macedo, the vice-president of the municipality, Carlos Mouta, the councillors Fernando Rocha, Marta Pontes and Vasco Pinho, the administrator of Matosinhos Sport, Henrique Calisto, the president of the Parish Union of Perafita, Lavra and Santa Cruz do Bispo, Lurdes Queirós, and the president of the Parish Union of Custóias, Leça do Balio and Guifões, Pedro Gonçalves, were present at the inaugural moments of the illuminations.
Maintaining the lighting on the main commercial arteries of the municipality, the municipality opted for 100% LED lighting with high efficiency and very low energy consumption. In addition, the number of structures with lighting was reduced by 25% compared to 2021, and electronic devices were used to save energy.
In all, over one million and 391 thousand LED technology bulbs have been installed in all the parishes. There are 15 km of light, with a total of 848 pieces of lighting made up of 3,097 luminotechnical elements. 225 natural trees are lit.
The local authority has favoured the use of decorative materials, suitable for reinforcing and amplifying the light effect of the bulbs, without increasing their power, thus contributing to energy savings.
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