Festive lights addictive
Findlater St might soon become a Christmas grotto.
Alan and Delyse Dowling have entered their home into this year’s Bayleys Christmas Lights Tour for the first time.
Along with their display, neighbours have got involved and there will be plenty to see if you venture down the Matamata street.
A few years ago, the Dowlings went to the Boxing Day sales and saw Christmas lights ‘‘going cheap’’.
They didn’t put them up last year, but decided 2014 was the year to get in the festive spirit.
‘‘ We actually just started doing it in front of the ranch slider but once we’d done that and we saw them on at night Delyse said ‘ why don’t you do a bit more?’,’’ Alan said.
A bit more became a bit more and a little bit more until voila! ‘‘ We finally ended up going right across the front,’’ Alan said.
The house now features a range of lights and decorations.
Alan said he’s learnt a by getting involved.
‘‘I was going in and buying four metre lengths. You wind up with a lot of plugs you’ve got to find power points for. You can buy longer lengths and so now I know that, that’s what I’ll do next time.’’
The couple said they got to a point when they thought ‘‘where do we put them now?’’. It was then they started to get inventive.
They now have
lights
lot
in hanging baskets and they even tried to make a Doctor Who tardis. ‘‘ But that’s a work in progress,’’ Alan joked.
Once they got going with their light display, the Dowlings thought it would be something neat for young people to see. They say it really gets their imaginations going and they’ve been trying to think of new things to do with Christmas lights.
Even the neighbours have started to put up their own lights. It’s possible the whole of Findlater St will be covered in Christmas lights in years to come.
‘‘I hope that if people drive around and look at this they might be inspired to do the same thing,’’ Alan said. ‘‘ I don’t know why we’ve never done it before,’’ added Delyse.
The couple said they get a kick out of seeing people come and look at them. ‘‘We’ve had people walk up the street and just say ‘wow’.’’
But Delyse said it was simply about the joy of Christmas. ‘‘ Our kids have grown up and so it’s lovely that other people get enjoyment out of it. That’s what Christmas is all about.’’
But it’s now never ending. ‘‘ Even today we’ve bought more. It just grows,’’ she said.
The couple now encourage others to decorate their houses for Christmas.
Check out page 19 for this year’s Christmas Lights Tour map, which features all the address for all the houses taking part this year. Go and check them out!