Portimão Council has lit up the town’s traditional shopping streets with Christmas lights in a bid to encourage people to shop locally and support struggling businesses.
On Friday (November 27), Portimão Mayor Isilda Gomes visited the Christmas light displays and told business owners that the council is doing everything it can to support them during the ongoing pandemic.
The council has invested around €75,000 in its ‘Eu Quero o Meu Natal – Eu Escolho Cumprir’ (I Want My Christmas – I Choose to Comply) initiative, which urges local citizens to follow Covid-19 guidelines in order to keep case numbers low and encourages them to shop locally.
However, the pandemic has forced the council to cancel some of its usual Christmas attractions, such as the ice rink and Christmas village.
The local council hopes that the light decorations will be enough to attract shoppers to traditional shopping streets.
Christmas lights are spread out across the municipality with some of the prettiest displays found in Praça da República square (also known as Alameda), Praça Manuel Teixeira Gomes (riverside square) and in Praia da Rocha.
At Alameda, a giant walk-through Christmas bauble will feature a musical light show every half hour between 5.30pm and 10pm.
A giant Christmas tree has also been erected in front of the town hall, while a life-size nativity scene is on display at Largo da Mó in the so-called ‘Rua das Lojas’ (shopping street).
, Portimão Mayor Isilda Gomes visited the Christmas light displays){kind=link}