Toowoomba’s favourite and Australia’s largest community Christmas event Toowoomba’s Christmas Wonderland, opened last weekend and can be visited on any night up to Christmas Eve from 7pm to 10pm.
Since its inception, Toowoomba’s Christmas Wonderland has welcomed over one million visitors and has returned over $1.32 million back to the local community through its beneficiaries.
This year is its 20th year of bringing the joy of Christmas to the young and young-at-heart across the Toowoomba region.
Toowoomba’s Christmas Wonderland is proudly presented by the Lions Club of Toowoomba West, and it takes thousands of volunteer hours to set up the event, open nightly and pack up.
Toowoomba’s Christmas Wonderland Committee Chair, Lion, Marshall Cox said there’s a number of surprises and new experiences coming to the event this year in celebration of 20 years.
“We’ve partnered with a number of local businesses to really pull out all the stops for this year’s event to make it a memorable one,” he said.
“We have a number of new light displays, plus we’ll bring a few favourites out of retirement, and we also have some fantastic entertainers – such as Toowoomba’s Elvis, joining us for nightly entertainment.”
Mr Cox is calling on the generous people of Toowoomba to come and help with this year’s event.
“In previous years we have relied on the generous people of Toowoomba to help us with this fantastic family event and this year is no different,” he said.
“I’m asking anyone who would like to help bring the joy of Christmas to our community to go to our website and register as a volunteer. “
Your assistance will be greatly appreciated, and you get to work with like-minded locals.”
In 2021, Toowoomba’s Christmas Wonderland had a triumphant return after the 2020 event was postponed due to COVID, raising $69,000 for local beneficiaries Toowoomba Hospital Foundation, Toowoomba Hospice and Lifeline Darling Downs and Southwest Queensland.
In that year, 1,281 volunteer shifts gave 4,484 hours of their time over the nightly run of the event, which was enjoyed by 66,244 visitors.
To register to volunteer, visit christmaswonderland.com.au
This article appeared in On Our Selection News, 8 December 2022.
