6 fun facts about Winnipeg's Christmas lights

You know it's almost Christmas time when downtown Winnipeg gets plastered with lights. Here are a few fun facts about them.

1. There are a lot of different fixtures

According to Derek Resch, the supervisor for the festive lighting with the City of Winnipeg, there are around 750 different lighting fixtures, plus the five large median fixtures that run along Portage Avenue and Main Street.

The entire lighting display illuminates 7.6 kilometres of the downtown streets and includes things like snowflakes, elves, presents, starbursts, and angels.

2. LED rope lighting has reduced power consumption dramatically

"We used to use [188,818 individual lights] to power the Christmas display," Resch said. Those lights used 305kw back in 2002. Since the conversion to LED rope lighting, power consumption has decreased to just 29kw, a change of over 90%.

3. It takes a surprisingly short amount of time to put up the lights

Installing the full 7.6 kilometres of lighting takes City of Winnipeg employees just nine days, with assistance from additional City staff and hired equipment.

"We're in the middle of our festive lighting installation [right now]," Resch said.

They do the median work over back-to-back weekends, then begin work on the sidewalk lighting.

4. This is a year-round project

These lights don't just get worked on at Christmas time.

"A lot of work goes into preparing those fixtures in the offseason," Resch said. "We constantly change the rope lighting to make sure it's as bright and luminous as it can be."

5. It takes two full-time employees to maintain the lights

Even once their up, they are continually maintained by two full-time City of Winnipeg employees, who check on the lights and replace any that have burned out. They work on them from the time the lights go up at the beginning of November until after Christmas Day.

6. It would cost almost a million dollars to replace

The downtown Christmas lights haven't changed in a while, and part of that is because the entire display would cost an astronomical $800,000 to replace. That doesn't mean they aren't adding some new things.

"We are looking actually at making some changes in the new years and potentially evolving our Christmas display," Resch teased. "We're hoping to include more Christmas trees and snowmen."

A fun colour change this year will be with the lights that sit in front of BellMTS Place. They have been fitted to shine with the Winnipeg Jets colours.