31
FEATURE: CHRISTMAS
The Great
OUTDOORS
Lavish castles, sprawling markets and glittering wonderlands are prompting centre
managers to dedicate more outside space to Christmas activity
A
s shopping centres fight to distinguish themselves from penguin models scattered across the city. The scheme was designed
one another, Christmas activities have grown bigger and to raise awareness of global warming, so naturally Tolley wanted
better. The traditional Santa’s grotto is being replaced with Liverpool One to get involved. The Ice Palace was an ideal platform:
food markets, ice rinks, and in some cases even castles. But nine handcrafted penguins found their way inside.
even the most spacious mall couldn’t house an expansive winter “It worked really well,” comments Tolley. “We wanted to give
wonderland, so centres are switching to outdoor spaces for their people something to look at while they were queuing to go inside, so
festive offerings. we had penguins looking out through the glass windows. There was
One such centre is the eminent Liverpool One, which no longer also a mail box where children could drop off their letter to Santa, and
has a plain old grotto but Santa’s Ice Palace. “That says it all really,” a conveyer belt to take the mail to the North Pole.”
says marketing director Lisa Tolley, who started on 2009’s Christmas Inside the grotto itself, a costumed Father Christmas sat on a
scheme in the middle of last year. “The tendering process began in the throne surrounding by hanging icicles, (and a carefully positioned
summer, and LDJ came up with the idea of a magical ice palace which partition allowed the centre to get away with two Santas). Having
incorporated Liverpool’s Go Penguins event.” taken so long to plan and a week to construct, Tolley wanted to make
Go Penguins, commissioned by Liverpool City Council as part of the most of the Ice Palace’s opening day.
the Year of the Environment, comprised 150 individually designed “We had the option of hiding it and then doing a big reveal,
www.shopping-centre.co.uk February 2010 SHOPPING CENTRE
31 33-SCFeb-Xmas3.indd 31 15/2/10 16:32:42
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