The map for this year’s Northern Lights Manchester Christmas trail has been revealed.
The trail will return to Heaton Park in November, bringing a mile of festive lights and installations to the park for families from across Bury.
This year's theme, A Christmas Time Machine, will transform the park into a nostalgic journey through the toys, traditions and Christmas memories of generations past.
Childhood favourites including Spirograph, Scalextric, Slinky and kaleidoscopes will be reimagined as larger-than-life illuminated experiences along the route.
Visitors will enter through the Christmas Time Machine itself, a radiant tunnel of light designed to mark the transition from everyday life into a glowing Christmas past.
The newly revealed trail will then take visitors through a series of immersive installations.
At Retro Racers, Scalextric gets a technicolour Christmas makeover, with visitors able to take control of a giant illuminated racetrack and send lights whizzing around its bends.
A giant rainbow Slinky will tumble above the trail, while neon Spiropath patterns twist and weave overhead and mirrored kaleidoscope arches surround visitors with swirling colour and pattern.
There will also be a battalion of giant nutcrackers at Nutcracker Salute, where illuminated commands underfoot will encourage visitors to hop, twirl, skip and jump their way through the installation.
One of the most recognisable Christmas memories for many generations, flicking through the toy catalogue with a highlighter and circling every must-have present, will also feature.
Manchester primary school pupils have helped bring the catalogue back to life with their own drawings of classic toys.
Their work will combine the Christmas memories of previous generations with the wishes and imagination of Manchester's children today.
Elsewhere on the route, visitors will encounter a bustling North Pole postal operation packed with parcels, workshops and hardworking elves.
A giant illuminated edition of The Night Before Christmas will be tucked away in the woods, while Ding Dong Merrily will allow visitors to create their own festive tune by tapping a sequence of glowing bells.
A marshmallow-roasting area will provide another opportunity to stop, with festoon lights and flickering fire pits creating a warm-up spot along the trail.
The map also reveals the setting for the trail's grand finale at the Lakehouse.
An enormous key will wind the building into a magical cuckoo-clock spectacle, with gears whirring, candy canes twirling and toy soldiers marching.
Emma St.Croix, marketing manager at From The Fields, said: “Christmas memories are rarely about one particular year, they are found in the toys we desperately wished for, the stories we heard at bedtime and the traditions we repeated with our families.
“Those shared memories inspired us to create A Christmas Time Machine for Heaton Park.
“We’re looking forward to awakening fond memories that parents and grandparents will recognise from their own childhoods, while giving younger visitors the opportunity to discover them in a completely new way.
“Heaton Park gives us an extraordinary setting in which to tell that story, and we cannot wait for visitors to see how its landscape and landmarks will be transformed this winter.”
Northern Lights Manchester runs from November 19 to December 31.
Alongside the light trail, there will be a Christmas Village featuring seasonal food and drink, vintage fairground rides and places to warm up.
Two dedicated neuro-inclusive evenings will take place on Wednesday, December 2 and Wednesday, December 9, with visitor numbers reduced by 75 per cent and lower audio levels throughout the trail.
The fully accessible mile-long route will feature wheelchair-friendly paths, ramp access points and seating areas, alongside Access time slots and queue jump wristbands for visitors with additional needs.
Tickets start from £19.50 for adults and £13.50 for children, plus a £1.75 transaction fee per booking.
Free flexible booking allows customers to change their chosen date or time up to 24 hours before their visit.
Tickets can be purchased through northernlightsmanchester.com.
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