Luneur Park · Christmas event · November 2017

Christmas Village.

The full scenographies of Christmas at Luneur — ice mine, snowmen, spiral lollipops, cartoon trees, gingerbread cottages.

Story

Act one

The ice
mine.

In November 2017 Luneur entrusts us with the full scenographies of the Christmas Village — the park's seasonal event that every winter turns the central path into a themed winter route for families with small children. Five or six large installations, styrofoam-fiberglass matter, saturated cartoon finish, fast assembly suited to a seasonal event.

The most scenographic piece is the ice mine: a large wall of stalactites and rock formations sculpted in raw white styrofoam, assembled in our workshops before transport. You can see the vertical streaks of the stone, the organic curves of the ice deposits, the three-dimensional depth obtained by overlapping panels of varying relief.

The workshop photos carry the date of 12 November 2017 — the pieces still in the workshops, mounted on scaffolding, with a worker at scale to give the measure of the object.

Ice mine workshop in the Creation Art lab for the Luneur Christmas Village: large wall in raw white styrofoam modelled into stalactites and rock formations, metal ladder leaning on the right side with a worker in blue overalls on top, visible scaffolding above — The ice mine on site — raw styrofoam

Other installations of the Luneur Christmas Village in the Creation Art workshops, production stage, materials and tools — The workshop in production

Act two

The snowman
and the lollipops.

Four days later, on 16 November 2017, the scenographies are already at the park and partly installed. The photos show the snowman two and a half metres tall with a grey top hat, red scarf, orange carrot nose — the fairytale silhouette that opens the route.

Next to the snowman, the cartoon Christmas trees: three stylised green cones with scalloped oblique spirals, each two metres tall. In front of everything, a row of red-and-white spiral lollipops stuck into the fake snow (white polyester) — the visual catwalk that announces the village.

On the right, a stylised gingerbread cottage in cream-yellow with orange edges — arched window, icicle roof, icing lettering. All in hand-carved expanded styrofoam patinated in saturated cartoon colours, stiffened in fiberglass to resist the weather of an outdoor event from November to January.

Luneur Christmas Village installed on 16 November 2017: snowman two and a half metres tall with grey top hat, red scarf and orange carrot nose at the centre, three green cartoon Christmas trees with spirals on the sides, row of red-and-white spiral lollipops in the foreground, cream-yellow gingerbread cottage on the right, illuminated palm trees and blue sky of early dusk — The Village installed — snowman, cartoon trees, lollipops

Another view of the Luneur Christmas Village installed at the park: scenographic details, dusk lighting — View of the finished installation at the park

Panoramic view of the completed Christmas Village: snowman, trees, lollipops, cottages, surrounding palms, winter atmosphere of Luneur — Overview of the Village at Luneur

Behind the scenes

A cartoon Christmas,
three park seasons.

Seasonal scenographies for theme parks have a specific constraint: they last two months a year (November-January) and are then stored for the following season. They have to return to the stage every year, fresh as the first time.

The ice mine

The stalactite wall is sculpted in modular panels of expanded styrofoam, stiffened with fiberglass and then applied to scaffolding for on-site assembly. The finish is white-blue with accents of cobalt blue in the deep cuts — the iconography of cartoon ice from a child's Christmas illustration.

The seasonal bestiary

Snowman, spiral Christmas trees, lollipops, gingerbread cottage: each piece is sculpted in saturated cartoon, exaggerated proportions, flat colours. It's the same visual grammar as the Gigioland village applied to Christmas — the chromatic nostalgia of fifties illustrated books.

The seasonal storage

Everything is designed to be assembled and dismantled every year: modular panels of the mine, foot bases for the snowman, ground wedges for the lollipops. In January the elements go back to storage, in October they return to the workshop for the new edition of the Village. It's a recurring work, not a single event.

~2 months

the seasonal duration of the Village: November-January

~2.5 m

the height of the snowman · Christmas trees 2 m tall

2017

the first edition of the Village signed Luneur after the reopening

Tech sheet

All production data

Type: Full scenographies for a Christmas seasonal event · theme park
Location: Luneur Park · EUR Rome · park route
Production period: 12–16 November 2017 · four days between workshop production and on-site installation
Elements delivered: Ice mine — monumental wall of stalactites and rock formations, carved styrofoam

Snowman — ~2.5 m tall, grey top hat, red scarf, orange carrot nose

Three cartoon Christmas trees — stylised green cones with scalloped spirals

Row of red-and-white spiral lollipops

Gingerbread cottage — arched window, icicle roof, icing details

Scenographic snow in white polyester covering the route
Techniques: Hand-carved expanded styrofoam · fiberglass reinforcement · saturated polychrome cartoon finish · resistant to outdoor winter exposure
Cluster: Part of Luneur Park
Second life: Scenographies stored each year between January and November · returned to the stage in the following editions of the Christmas Village

Second life

A Christmas that returns
every winter.

The 2017 Christmas Village is the first Christmas edition signed Luneur after the reopening of October 2016. The scenographies we built are modular elements designed to be reassembled in the following years — the snowman, the cartoon trees, the lollipops, the gingerbread cottage return for the park's winter season.

The Christmas season is one of the moments of greatest attendance at Luneur — the park stays open late, lights on, atmosphere transformed. Our scenographies are the physical context of that transformation. For us it's also a good opportunity for a recurring commission: every year the park can ask for additions or replacements of single elements of the Village.