Lisburn and Castlereagh will splash more than half a million pounds on Christmas cheer as other councils give their festive cash to charity.
The winter light festival spend will clock in at £535,000 this year, and includes an animated Christmas tree, 100 metre metre light tunnel and a six metre reindeer on Comber Road.
The budget has been agreed by the Development Committee, and will go before the full council next week.
About half that- £240,000 - is part of a three-year contract associated with the annual running of the festival.
Meanwhile Ards and North Down Council will give over their £23,000 Christmas events budget to Covid community recovery.
The Lisburn Christmas display will be at the same scale as 2019 - with the addition of Covid safety measures.
Installations include a light canopy on Bow Street, prisms at Market Square and "angel photo stations".
The festival will extend to Dundonald for the first time.
A food market is flagged as a possibility, depending on public health advice.
The council has bid for £100,000 for festivities from the Department for Communities.
Councillors ruled out Halloween fireworks after a report dubbed them a costly '15 minute display in a time of austerity'.
A socially-distanced drive-in pyrotechnics event - floated for Balmoral Park - would have cost up to £50,000.
Last year Freedom of Information requests revealed LCCC spent £461,952 on decorations for 2019 , including £33,322 on Christmas trees.
