Spotlight on Festive Designs
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For Bill Clarke its never too early to be thinking of Christmas and how to attract more visitors to attractions, retail outlets and hospitality venues for the festive season. It’s a feel-good industry that brings light, colour and magic to our winter months – but it is also a sound investment in boosting your visitor numbers and bottom line.
We turn our spotlight on Bill from Supplier Partner, Festive Designs.
What inspired you to set up a festive décor business?
I’ve been working in the promotions industry, in and around the county, for the last 57 years in various guises from creating balloon décor to promotional giveaways
In 2007 we were working for a local PR company, supplying Tesco with various attractions for their store openings. We provided around 10 stores, every Saturday and Sunday in the run up to Christmas, with snow clad trees, inflatable log cabins and had Santa handing out branded goody bags.
The success of this really inspired me to continue creating new and more exciting festive attractions for Festive Designs’ own growing clientele.
Many years later, with the country at a standstill with Covid and restrictions starting to be lifted, we created what was our first ‘drive thru grotto’ at Heskin Hall near Chorley, with cars safely driving through one side of a huge marquee past two scenes with elves in the mailroom and in the toy factory. Outside the marquee we had four real reindeer and back through the marquee, a Mrs Christmas in her kitchen and Santa in his office handing out gifts. All the characters interacted with the visitors, who remained in their cars throughout, and as they left, they drove through a magical snowstorm.
In 2025, in conjunction with Duxbury Park Golf Club in Chorley, we created a walk through Light Trail with various structures including a 4mt diameter moon, ending in the walled garden with more lighting effects, log cabin with Santa and small fairground rides. This proved very successful but we had to close for three days, due to wind and rain.
In 2026 we were invited back to Duxbury and this time, to avoid any weather issues, we created a huge marquee with blackout and star lit roof, making more of a traditional walk round grotto – with some imaginative differences.
Guests would arrive and be entertained by the elves, write and post letter to Santa, colour in some drawings and listen to a story, before stepping inside the Magical Elevator. Once inside, guests looked through windows as the elevator rose above the roof tops and into the clouds, across the sky to Lapland where they circled Santa’s village, before setting down at the door to Santa’s house.
‘Time to ring the doorbell’ they were told, the door then opened and they stepped into Santa’s living room to meet the big man himself. They then had photos taken and were given a golden ticket, which they could then exchange for a gift in his toy shop. In all, the visit lasted 30 to 40 minutes.
I think you can see why we became hooked and wanted to created even more fantastic attractions and displays for our customers.
Who are your typical customers?
The customer base for hiring festive props is diverse, ranging from large commercial entities, trying to capture massive footfall, to private individuals creating unforgettable family memories. Businesses and people looking to rent instead of buy, are usually trying to solve three main issues: avoiding year-round storage headaches, ensuring professional, high-impact aesthetics, and changing tastes and trends. We take all those cares away.
From independents to major attractions, where are you seeing the strongest demand for seasonal or Christmas displays?
Across the UK retail and leisure landscape, the demand for seasonal and Christmas staging is hitting record highs, but the type of demand has fundamentally shifted. With compressed shopping windows pushing spending later into November and December, local Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and independent high-street boutiques are joining forces. The Goal: To give consumers a physical, community-focused reason to step away from online shopping and visit the physical high street, supporting local retailers and independent boutique gifting simultaneously.
How powerful can a great display be in turning passers-by into paying customers?
A strategically designed, well-executed Christmas display is one of the most cost-effective seasonal drivers of foot traffic and sales—especially for retail, hospitality, and experience businesses. It can produce measurable uplifts in visits, conversions, and average spend when aligned with merchandising, pricing, and staff readiness.
In a crowded market, can festive displays be the difference between a busy season and a quiet one?
On a busy high street or in a crowded shopping village, consumers default to “tunnel vision.” They walk quickly, looking down at phones or moving with a specific destination in mind.
A generic shop window with a simple “Merry Christmas” vinyl sticker, just blends into the background. Passers-by walk straight past without looking up. Whereas a high-contrast, well-lit display with depth (like those mentioned earlier) breaks that visual monotony. It disrupts their stride, forces them to look, and pulls them across the threshold. You cannot sell to someone who doesn’t walk into your store or attraction; the display is the hook.
Festive displays are far more than a visual tradition—they are heavily tied to the bottom line. For brick-and-mortar businesses, a standout display is a strategic tool to combat e-commerce by offering a physical experience that cannot be replicated on a screen.
How early should businesses be thinking about Christmas — and when is already too late?
Big Brands requiring large installations normally place orders 9 to 12 months in advance, allowing them to plan and create seasonal campaigns. Medium retailers wanting elaborate windows or instore displays place orders 2 to 6 months in advance, while small shops and businesses start planning 6 to 8 weeks in advance. It becomes too late 7 to 10 days before major shopping spikes such as Black Friday.
Which products are consistently your best sellers?
When businesses, councils, and event planners look to hire Christmas props, they focus heavily on high-impact, durable items that are difficult to buy, transport, and store. The most rented items are those that immediately transform a commercial space or serve as a direct backdrop for customer photos. Props like giant Nutcrackers, props suitable for selfies, large decorated trees, Santa’s sleigh with realistic reindeer, Santa’s throne and animatronics – are in most demand.
What’s set to dominate Christmas displays this year — and how can Lancashire businesses stay one step ahead?
The festive retail landscape for Christmas is moving away from generic, overcrowded plastic decor and shifting toward highly deliberate, storytelling visual merchandising. For independent businesses from Preston to Lancaster, competing with massive national department store budgets means leaning into agility, local pride, and experiential shopping.
Ensure your window or attraction has a dedicated, well-lit focal point at eye level. Whether it’s an oversized velvet bow framing a hero product or a beautifully lit backdrop, make it look striking through a smartphone camera lens. This encourages passing foot traffic to snap a photo and tag your business location in their social media – helping promote your business in a simple, fast-acting, cost effective way.
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It’s never to early to contact Festive Designs for all your seasonal and Christmas decor needs.
Tel: 01942 496 844