The English Village Soon To Be Lit With Christmas Lights

By Nicole Matheson

Christmas is coming early to Lake Havasu City. The English Village will be aglow with holiday lights starting this weekend to bring cheer to our community. For more than 25 years, Christmas lights have adorned the village during the holidays. This year may be a little different as there will not be the usual gathering under the bridge to celebrate the start of the lights. But the tradition was still upheld and any day the finished product is going to dazzle onlookers.

“London Bridge Resort is excited to bring some holiday cheer,” says Cal Sheehy of London Bridge Resort. “There are several photo locations and hundreds of thousands of lights to celebrate this season.”

Samantha Zasadil/RiverScene

Holiday Makeover

RiverScene caught up with Josh Matter, who has been diligently working with a team of four others to get the lights placed and ready. Tim Carter, Robbie Mitchell, Billy Staib and Stephen Samarin join Matter in the effort to makeover the English Village for the holidays.

“We started the first of October this year,” Matter shares, proving that lighting the village is no small task. While the exact number of lights used is unknown, Matter recalls counting the bulbs in a previous year and coming up with over three quarters of a million.

Josh Matter and Robbie Mitchell are working on rewiring a strand of lights.
Samantha Zasadil/RiverScene

“I look forward to it every year,” Matter says, noting that it is always good to see the faces of people coming through who enjoy the holidays. That is what the team strives for as they work Monday through Friday week after week to hang all of the lights.

Although their workload is full, Matter explains that this isn’t their first year doing this. The crew has quite a bit of experience, ranging from a few years to 25 years. So they are able to work quite efficiently with a trained awareness for the finer details of the job.

Although Santa will not be visiting under the London Bridge this year, Santa’s house will be available for families to take photos in as in previous years.

Christmas lights will also soon be on near the Blue Chair, Sunset Charter and Tour Co, Burgers By the Bridge and Brewed and Blended. Keep a look out for the lighting of the English Village, coming up soon.