LIGHTING THE WAY
Check out some dazzling displays
Janet Wanner’s yard is a beautiful winter tableau, complete with a glowing horse-drawn carriage and a pond with a pair of illuminated swans.
The former commercial Christmas decorator said she themed her yard this year on the old holiday cards of Currier and Ives, and she hopes to be able to strike that kind of note with her elaborate light display.
“It has to have a theme,” Wanner said. “I like plants and flowers and a more natural look, but at night you have to have the lights.”
Thousands of homes in Saskatoon are decorated with lights every year, but a few always go one step further in showing the world their holiday cheer. Wanner’s is one of the few dozen households that put together such extravagant Christmas displays that they also put themselves on public lists for self-guided tours in the city.
When she was still a commercial Christmas decorator, Wanner said she would help decorate malls and public spaces with trees and lights. Putting together a yard display is quite different from the work she used to do, though it does help feed her Christmas appetite, she said.
“I retired a year and a half ago. I still have the urge to go out and decorate,” she said with a laugh. “It was a lot of fun, creative fun is what it is.”
It’s a similar feeling for Darryl Harder, who tries to add something new to his decorated yard every year. Harder said he keeps putting up a large light display with a lot of illuminated inflatables because he likes seeing the community reaction.
It’s little gestures, like the card left in his mailbox congratulating him and thanking him for the effort he put into the lights, that make it worthwhile, he said.
“I’m proud of the work that we’ve put into it. It’s for other people’s enjoyment.”
For the past two decades a large and spectacular light display has also been set up in the Enchanted Forest at the Forestry Farm every winter.
This is the first time in a couple of years that Wanner has built such a large Christmas display.
Wanner said a few years ago her yard and display were subject to thefts and vandalism, including someone driving onto her lawn and running over her carefully built snowmen.
But Wanner said her family is made up of “positive people,” and didn’t want to let past events ruin future decorating fun.
“We still want to do it,” Wanner said. “I think we want to do this as a positive thing for the community.”