Project Overview

When Chas Clarkson was chosen to reimagine and future-proof the City of Sydney’s Christmas decoration infrastructure, we saw an opportunity to transform the festive season into a living artwork — a city wrapped in light, movement, and shared wonder. By day, Sydney became a vibrant wonderland glistening in the summer sun; by night, it shifted into a rich, storytelling illumination.

Our ambition was to redefine the decoration experience by integrating our exclusive Twinkly® technology. We orchestrated a network of synchronised installations that connected festive landmarks — the Martin Place Christmas Tree, Pitt Street Mall canopy, QVB building, Town Hall, and the Woolworths façade — into one dynamic, city-wide story.

The vision was to transform the city into an illuminated theatre, with architecture as our stage and light as our language. Sydney itself became the storyteller, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in the narrative of each site.

Each location pulsed with its own personality, yet together they formed a unified celebration of Sydney’s creativity, inclusivity, and cultural heartbeat. Our goal was to deliver not just Christmas for today, but an enduring, smart, cloud-based family of decorations — a platform capable of evolving and engaging the community year after year.

For Chas Clarkson, this was more than a design project. It was a statement: that decorations can connect people, place, and purpose; that the festive season can be both spectacular and sustainable; and that Sydney deserves a Christmas as dynamic as the city itself.

Organisation

Chas Clarkson

Team

Tim Clarkson (Managing Director)
Jason Sole (Group Account Director)
Andreas Zehntner (Creative Director)
Sam Clothier (Technical and Logistics Director)
Adam Walker (Technical and Logistics Manager)
Gerard Ryan (Production Director)
Adam Graham (Bespoke Production Manager)
Lucie Sekaninova (Major Projects & Overseas /Production Manager)
Andrew Thant Zin oo (Outbound Warehouse &Logistics Manager)
Jon Zinsi (NSW Operations Manager)
David Denison (Project Manager)
Juan Sebastian (Senior Interior Designer / Santa Experience)
Bruna Rosa (Senior Interior Designer / decoration suite)
Cherise Misquitta (Industrial Designer)
Ryley Davar (Industrial Designer)
Joanne Tran (Graphic media Designer)

Project Brief

The City of Sydney engaged Chas Clarkson to deliver a five-year Christmas decoration program that was visually striking, operationally efficient, sustainable, and able to evolve each year. The brief called for an integrated approach across the CBD and village precincts, ensuring a cohesive festive experience that celebrated Sydney’s Christmas identity while reflecting local character. The program enhanced night-time impact, boosted engagement, extended dwell time, and supported the Council’s night-time economy strategy.

A centrepiece was the complete redesign of the iconic Martin Place Christmas Tree into a world-class “smart” tree. Using exclusive Twinkly® lighting technology, the tree became a programmable platform for dynamic light shows and seasonal storytelling, controlled remotely via the cloud for maximum flexibility and longevity.

Nine new smart ‘village’ Christmas Trees were also introduced, each fully engineered and customised for its location, and connected to the cloud-based system. This allowed for city-wide synchronisation or individually tailored displays.

Other highlights included the Pitt Street Mall fairy-light canopy, a dynamic Twinkly® light curtain for the Woolworths façade, programmable icicle lighting for the QVB awnings, and a coordinated illumination program for Sydney Town Hall. All installations were designed for both day and night appeal, structural safety, weather resilience, and minimal disruption during installation.
The result was a scalable, innovative program that positions Sydney as a global leader in festive design, uniting landmarks and villages through smart technology, sustainable practices, and a lasting creative vision.

Project Innovation/Need

At Chas Clarkson, innovation is at the heart of everything we do. The City of Sydney’s Christmas decoration program provided the opportunity to pioneer a world-class, cloud-based lighting ecosystem powered by our exclusive Twinkly® technology. Our bold ambition was to make Sydney the most activated city in the world by connecting 15 individual decoration installations into one synchronised network—over 300,000 TWINKLY® LED fairy lights communicating and working together.

Through orchestrated and curated content, the City’s decorations became Australia’s first storytelling beacons. Each night from 7 pm, synchronised shows and playlists transformed festive assets into dynamic canvases, engaging the community and encouraging people to linger longer.

Every decoration asset, from Christmas Trees to building infrastructure, was reimagined with a future-focused approach. Insights from previous projects refined performance and efficiency, while new construction techniques and smarter material choices enhanced sustainability and longevity. Each element was engineered for safety and durability in high-traffic public spaces, designed to withstand wet weather and Sydney’s coastal conditions.

This program elevated festive design to a smart, sustainable, city-scale platform—redefining seasonal decoration as a flexible cultural asset. By connecting people and place through technology, creativity, and adaptability, Chas Clarkson delivered an enduring model of festive innovation, positioning Sydney as a global leader in city celebration.

Design Challenge

Delivering the City of Sydney’s largest ever smart festive decoration program meant activating 15 Twinkly® powered sites across the CBD and village precincts, all while navigating one of Australia’s most complex operational landscapes.

Structural design and engineering were paramount. Every asset—from the 25-metre Martin Place Smart Christmas Tree to the Pitt Street Mall canopy, village Christmas Trees, and large-scale façades—was engineered to the highest public health and safety standards. This included wind load modelling, anchoring systems tailored to heritage footings, and the use of durable materials resistant to corrosion, UV exposure, and wet weather.

Integrating all 15 sites into a centralised Twinkly® cloud-based ecosystem required precision pixel mapping, robust network design, and rigorous testing to ensure synchronised or localised shows as needed.

Installations took place in live, high-traffic urban environments, often surrounded by heritage architecture. We ensured zero disruption to public access, transport corridors, and retail trade, working within narrow installation windows and strict council and safety regulations. Most installations were completed at night, demanding precise scheduling, rapid turnaround, and careful noise and light management to protect residents and businesses.

October 2025 brought unusually wet weather, with rain affecting over 65% of working nights. The team adapted through flexible sequencing, extra weatherproofing, and rapid on-site adjustments to maintain progress without compromising safety or quality.

The result was a world-class illuminated decoration program that overcame environmental, technical, and logistical challenges, setting a new benchmark for city-wide festive design.

Sustainability

Sustainability was a core driver in the design for the City of Sydney’s Christmas program, with the goal of delivering maximum visual impact while minimising environmental footprint and creating long-term economic value for the City. The integration of exclusive Twinkly® technology enabled a shift to a sustainable, multi-year ecosystem that was built to last well beyond the five-year tender period. Twinkly® LEDs are up to 90% more energy efficient than traditional incandescent lights and have a lifespan of approximately 30,000 hours, significantly reducing both power consumption and the frequency of replacements. Smart features, such as centralised scheduling, dimming, and grouping, further minimise unnecessary energy use.

The decoration program was designed for longevity, combining premium, corrosion-resistant materials, stainless steel cable infrastructure, UV-stable finishes, and IP-rated lighting. If properly maintained, these elements will ensure the decorations extend well beyond the tender term. Modular structural systems were chosen so that components could be repaired, replaced, or reconfigured rather than discarded, supporting a circular approach. All decorations were manufactured according to strict ethical standards, using materials that can be separated for recycling or repurposing at the end of their life.

Operational sustainability was also improved by reducing the need for site visits for programming changes, streamlining installation processes, and enabling assets to be repurposed for other civic events such as New Year’s Eve, Lunar New Year, and Vivid Sydney. In this way, joy, technology, and environmental stewardship shine together in a future-proof festive network capable of illuminating Sydney for more than a decade.