The challenge is to present exciting elements that exceed the attraction of the previous years' displays. The sheer size of the venue facilitates a Christmas event that has no equal for scale and impact within any UK shopping centre.

Project manager Jackie Tracey meets the designers, artists and sculptors to discuss themes for the show and planning starts immediately. By March the plans are approved and the scenes start to take shape for the build. The massive project then commences at the Huddersfield base of specialist Christmas design company, KD Decoratives, which has been producing the centre's Christmas show for the past seven years.

The theme for 2006, Never Never Land, featured scenes from Peter Pan, including the construction of a 30-foot high galleon and a vast water feature complete with footbridge and streetlights.

The main elements of the show were marketed individually and collectively before and during the Christmas period. Last year £350,000 was allocated for the main display in Middleton Hall and a simple scheme of p-lights in the planter foliage throughout the mall. The display included Santa's grotto, which was self-financing. An additional spend of £150,000 on advertising supported the event.

Paid advertising was placed in regional newspapers, on radio and outdoor poster sites, in group travel magazines and children's magazines. Free publicity was achieved on regional television, radio and in the press. Total PR value was £517,000. Two regional television news stations covered the take-down of the show, yielding 253 seconds of positive PR coverage to the value of £64,150.

Two national television broadcasts saw thecentre:mk in the spotlight just before Christmas. Footage of the show was featured during a primetime slot in Saturday Morning Kitchen, and the same evening, ITV News showed footage of thecentre:mk in the run up to the Christmas Eve shopping rush.

But it's not all about money. Visitors were encouraged to donate to the centre's nominated charities - the Calvert Trust and Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

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