Christmas may still be ten months away, but that hasn't stopped Invercargill councillors weighing in on the state of the city’s festive decorations.

The discussion this week followed a small update in an infrastructure activities report on new “shimmer panels” that the council had trialed in the CBD last December.

Councillor Allan Arnold questioned how much the panels cost, before offering advice on how the council should tackle the silly season.

“A couple of comments on the decorations. This year they didn’t go up until the end of the first week in December, and Christmas was already well underway,” Arnold said.

“So it was probably three weeks too late.”

Arnold praised the traditional stringed lighting display in the city, but said the decreased number last year meant they looked “a bit lame”.

He was also critical of the council’s “triangular trees with the lights on them”, and asked if it would be worthwhile for staff to create a plan.

Mana whenua representative Evelyn Cook had a different view, saying although people enjoyed the lights, it could be time to consider alternatives.

“Putting those ones in is hugely resource consuming,” she said.

“Perhaps if we’re talking about this, this is the time we need to think about whether we should be moving away from those stringed lights, and looking at the more modern LED displays, and things like that.”

Councillors Grant Dermody and Steve Broad advocated for Bluff to receive more consideration for decorations, while Leslie Soper requested South City also get a nod.

Deputy Mayor Tom Campbell said it was good Arnold had raised his concerns because Christmas was often only discussed around October, by which point it was too late.

According to the staff report, Invercargill City Council was the first in New Zealand to use shimmer panels which brought “some colour to Esk St during the day” because of Christmas falling in the summer months.

Council group manager infrastructure Erin Moogan said the council was dealing with an issue of its last major investment in Christmas decorations coming to an end.

Some lights weren’t able to be put up in parts of the city because of problems with fixings, she said.

The organisation had discussed coordinating its approach to decorations on the same day as Tuesday’s meeting.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air

Reporter: Matthew Rosenberg