Some people take Christmas lights seriously. Very seriously.
The number of houses bedecking their entire house in Canberra with lights seems to be increasing every year. I'd think it was a habit spread from the US (see Griswolds Christmas Holiday) combined with the proliferation of cheap LED lights. Love them or hate them they're certainly a modern day enigma. There's now a website and app to help you find them and after hearing one chap on the radio discussing his display I decided to head out to nearby Kambah to see for ourselves.
We parked the car and found two houses completely covered in lights. Wire reindeer stood on their lawn and cotton wool snow was laid everywhere. What made the spectacle more impressive(?) than most was that they had a brass band playing on their driveway. Not to be outdone the neighbours had a 10 piece choir taking carol requests from passers-by.
The family had converted their (double) garage into a grotto and a small train happily puffed round a snowy mountain. The kids of course loved every minute.
I spoke to some people there about how amazing it was and they said "Yes, but you have seen the bigger house haven't you?". It turned out that a short walk down the hill was a huge house (owned by a builder - who have the majority of wealth in Canberra) again bedecked with lights but this time with a full-size Tardis and snow machine!
At our second stop what was even more amazing was the fact that all the neighbours had 'joined in'. Every house was covered in lights and the twinkling cul-de-sac had been renamed 'Christmas Street'. People sold sausages from their driveway and a storm trooper gave out lollipops to the kids.
Afterwards the kids started planning for our own display next year. Hopefully over the course of the next few months they'll forget. Either that or I'll have to put my order in for the 5 metre inflatable snow man sometime around July.
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| Christmas Street |
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| Audrey encounters the snow machine |
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| I think Audrey's face says it all |
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| In the grotto/garage |
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| The brass band plan how they're going to drown out the neighbours choir |
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