With the 10 nights of lights festival starting from tonight (Wednesday), the youth centre will light up the five metre tall Christmas tree on Tuesday, December 23 as part of a night of free entertainment.

The 10 nights of lights has seen kids at the youth centre working hard to create a range of colourful Christmas cut-outs, which have been used to decorate the building and lawns of the youth centre on St Vincent Street.

Lights cover the building and will be on from tonight (December 17) through until December 26 with the lights which decorate the gigantic Christmas tree, which features a large star on top, to stay dark until the festival.

Aimed to bring the community together and celebrate the spirit of Christmas, Tuesday’s festival will include carols performed by the Shoalhaven Youth Orchestra, and high wire aerial acts and ground acts by Circus 35 degrees.

The Lions club will be on hand with food vans and the merry go round and Santa is booked in to make a visit on a fire truck handing out lollies to the kids.

The celebrations will kick off at 5.30pm with entertainment running through until the tree is lit up at about 9.30pm.

Organiser Mark Ettridge is excited about turning on the lights at the centre tonight and about the upcoming fun.

“It is going to be a great night of celebrations,” he said.

“We have had wonderful support from the community so far and are now calling on people to come along for the evening.

“The Circus 35 troupe will be performing acrobatic and aerial routines and the Shoalhaven Youth Orchestra will be leading carol singing.

“The centre will be all lit up and looking wonderful.

“It will be a great night filled with free family entertainment.”

A big fan of Christmas himself, Mark was inspired to run the 10 night of light festival to help boost Christmas cheer in the area.

“Christmas is a time for compassion and tolerance,” he said.

“This sentiment is already in the community, we just wanted a chance to let it shine through.”

The Ulladulla Youth Centre has been selling raffle tickets to help raise funds for the festival, and with great prizes including a surfboard, tickets are sure to be snapped up with the raffle to be draw at the festival on Tuesday.

To get your tickets in the raffle, or to find out more about the festival contact the centre on 4454 1761.

The lights at the Ulladulla Youth Centre will be lit from tonight, Wednesday, December 17, for 10 nights.