PE couple grab honours for best-decorated holiday home
ONE of Port Elizabeth’s most recognisable houses recently proved it had all the “light moves” after the Lovemore Heights residence claimed the inaugural title of “South Africa’s best-decorated holiday home”.
Henk and Lila Grootendorst beat 13 elaborately embellished homes from around the country in competition on a voting platform on a national media group’s website.
Grootendorst, 52, said his Melsetter Street home began turning into a winter wonderland about four years ago when his mother, Wilhelmina, was diagnosed with cancer.
The owner of Grootendorst Bakery started with an ornately decorated Christmas tree to provide his mother with hope prior to her surgery in 2014.
He then placed a post on Facebook to ask people in the Bay to pray for his mother.
The overwhelming response of good wishes from the public before and after the successful surgery saw him decorate his entire house as a “thank-you” to the city’s residents.
“Winning the competition was a complete surprise to me. I did not know our house had been entered,” Grootendorst said.
“I was called [at the weekend] to say my house had received the most votes.
“There was no prize, but the acknowledgement is great, especially [as] there are more and better decorated houses in PE, never mind the rest of the country.
“And the PE community still seems to enjoy the decorations, which is why I put them up in the first place.
“Until last weekend, I would still get more than 100 people parked outside my house daily to watch the display.”
Grootendorst would not divulge the exact value of the display, but said: “More than R100 000 worth has been added over the four years.”
According to an article published by the competition organisers, the Grootendorst home received thousands of votes on its Facebook site.
Grootendorst said the overwhelming response and appreciation from the community was what motivated him to continue labouring over the two months it took to set up the complex display.
“From October until we have our opening event in the first week of December, I come straight from work to [tackle] the lights, usually until 11pm.
“We open the season with a march and small concert in front of the house – this year about 5 000 people attended.
“And my mom loves it. Sometimes when I am at work, she will call me to say I must come home to switch on the lights because people are already waiting outside to see the show,” he said.
Lila said the additional lighting pushed their electricity bill up by only about R1 000 during December, but public gratitude made the additional costs worthwhile.