‘I’d love families to enjoy shows’
A SOUTHPORT man renowned for creating incredible Christmas Lights displays has begun showing his biggest creation yet.
Steve Henshall is running regular shows outside his Sidney Road house for families to stop and enjoy.
A year of planning has gone into creating the display, which is being run by specially created software to create the unique images and features special pixel lights which are not on sale anywhere in the UK.
The displays feature thousands of lights and will last 12 minutes, with accompanying Christmas music. The shows started on Saturday and will run every half-hour at the High Park house from 4pm to 9pm until January 5 2017.
Families are welcome to visit and enjoy the lights for free, but donations are requested towards Freshfield Animal Rescue.
Steve said: “I’d love to see families coming to enjoy the shows. We’ve got a competition for under 16s to take a photo and email it to me for a chance to win some goodies from Freshfield Animal Rescue.
“I’ve always been interested in electrical things and gadgets since my grandad got me into it.”
Steve, who works as an industrial ice cream machine engineer, said he decided to create the display after receiving praise for a very simple set up last year. He chose to support the animal rescue after getting three of his five rescue kittens from the centre.
He said: “I thought in January that we’ll have to do something better this year. I researched into it and that people in America use these pixel lights. Using a bespoke computer programme, you can control hundreds of these lights individually to create any image or text you want.
Steve admits his wife is ‘a bit bemused and bewildered’ by his efforts, but said he couldn’t have created the display without family support.
“I’ve very much enjoyed the support of my wife Janice and son Tim, they’ve helped with the music and supported me all the way through.”
Donations can be made to Freshfield Animal Rescue by visiting Steve’s Just Giving page, by texting SIDN99 £5 to 70070, or by leaving donations at the displays.