While so many Portuguese towns have scrapped Christmas illuminations for a second year running in order to save money, it’s good to learn that a Portuguese company has won the lucrative contract to light up Oxford Street in London for the festive season.
Castros Iluminações Festivas, a 90-year-old firm from Espinho, near Porto, scooped the €1.2 million contract with their proposal for a truly white Christmas along one of London’s most successful shopping streets.
A total of 1,778 decorative snowballs have been set up between Tottenham Court Road and Marble Arch, backed by 750,000 LED lights.
Up to 40 million shoppers are expected to descend on the famous street during the six-week Yuletide commercial bonanza, where “thousands of millions of euros” are habitually spent.
Castros Iluminações Festivas, founded in 1921 by carpenter António Araújo Castro, prides itself on its original ideas which it is always at pains to keep as ecologically-aware as possible.
