Follow @BgoAddyMICK Youla wrestles with a flaccid inflatable palm tree out the front of his Thunder Street Cal Bungalow.“Needs fishing line,” he says, trying to keep it upright, giving away one of the secrets of festive front yard fanciers... For while they may distract you with their bright lights and yuletide fun, behind the picket fence it’s all business. Extension leads are laid like cobwebs, ten pegs are popular, as are double adapters. It’s an amateur electrician’s dream. Or nightmare. But we’ll plant no thoughts of bad dreams in your mind this time of night. It’s nine o’clock on a Wednesday when we tip toe over said leads to reach the Youla’s front door.Amy and Mick have been decorating their home for Christmas for four or five years. They can’t decide how long exactly, but what’s certain is, each year the display gets bigger and better. Gallery: Bendigo Christmas lights
Two buying trips to Melbourne a year and a healthy dose of online shopping ensure the couple is continually adding to their decoration collection.“It started with a few items and we build on it every year,” Mick says.“We’ve had a look around town and a lot of the things we’ve got are unique, we haven’t seen them in any other display. “We’ve already worked out what we’re adding next year – you’ll have to come back to find out! And the neighbours have started catching on a little bit, this is the first time they’ve had flashing lights over there.“Not that they’ll catch us!”Last year Mick even became part of the display, dressing as Santa and ringing a bell. He says the first time he stepped out as Santa he was swamped by a mini-bus load of small children.It’s a sight that is so far missing from our tour.“We just love Christmas, and we love seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces,” Mick says.“We’re just big kids ourselves.“I’m looking forward to next week when I’ll be out here as Santa. There’s nothing like taking in the atmosphere of what’s happening outside.“It’s part of the feel-good month of December.”
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Next stop is Greenfield Drive, Epsom, to a new home subdivision of pale bricks and concrete paths, made fabulously colourful thanks to the Dillon family.A sign at the letterbox tells us to tune into 94.2FM and we’re rewarded with a thumping, heart-pumping, stereo jumping remix of the jingle bell rock. And all 4000 lights perfectly choreographed to the music.This place is amazing. Ben says it’s not unusual for kids to get out of the car and bust some dance moves on the footpath. Joyous stuff. Just not tonight, as Ben’s wife, Anne, rubs bare arms and announces she’s tuning numb out here.“A lot of people crank the music up, yeah, it’s awesome“We saw it on youtube, they do it in America all the time,” Ben says of the synchronised lights and music.“The control boxes cost $500 and I’ve got two of them, but the lights themselves are no more expensive than anything else.” Bendigo Advertiser/Hume & Iser Christmas lights competition map
View Bendigo Advertiser/Hume & Iser Christmas Lights competition in a larger mapBut Ben says the cost, and months of preparing for their Christmas display, are all worth it for their kids. “We’ve got young kids and I always loved Christmas lights when I was a kid, so we do it for them,” he says.The Dillon’s display rolls through four songs, and each beat was choreographed with a tap of the space bar on Ben’s computer. “It takes two to three hours to program or synchronise all the lights to one song,” he says. “I normally listen to the music in my car on the way to work for three months beforehand so I know the songs well and I can just tap them out.”And if starting your day with Christmas music from October seems a little much, get a load of this; Ben and Anne both work at Woolworths, and we all know what the supermarket sounds like this time of year.If you like the Dillon’s lights, show your thanks by popping a donation for the Good Friday Appeal in their letterbox, and they’ll pass it on to some seriously sick children. Or donate online at their facebook site, facebook.com/harryslights.Around the corner we’re like moths to the lights of Myrtle Street. We step out of the car to get a closer look at something very special, and all is quiet bar the gentle whirring and clunking and squeaking of the handiwork of Lionel Hartland.An old-style doll with roll back eyes – they type little girls used to dream of at Christmas – rocks in a home-made swing, laced with lights. A light box houses a Santa who’s been around the block many Christmas nights, while another Santa pops up and down a little chimney. There are others, homemade mechanical treasures, too lovely to describe here.These are the honest tinkerings of Michael Rutland’s pop. His gifts to the community. For many years Lionel’s Victoria Street home in Eaglehawk was a favourite of Christmas lights bus tours, of little children, and big ones.When Lionel passed away last year, just a couple of months before Christmas, his visitors still came, and waited.“People were sitting out the front of his house in their cars hoping he’d turn the lights on,” Michael, 17, says.“He had all these big ones, a Ferris wheel and a merry go round.“He had well over a dozen and he’d built a special shed to store them all in. He was the kind of person who would, after packing it all up, if a person came around to see it, he’d get everything out again so they could see them.”Lionel’s family is ensuring the community still gets to enjoy his craftsmanship. Michael has taken on the care of these treasures, while other family members in Holdsworth Road are doing the same.Michael has great memories of helping his pop set up the display each year, and of hanging out in the front yard with him.“I’d like to try to carry it on,” he says.
By now it’s getting late. And very cold. We expected to find kids in their jimmy jams, peering over fences, sitting on dads’ shoulders. We expected streams of slow-driving cars and ho ho hos. At many displays it’s a case of, the lights are on but no-one’s home. It must be the cold that’s keeping them away tonight, as the temperature drops below 10 degrees, and I pile on another jacket.
In Lowndes Street, Kennington, year nine student Jesse Cattell is up late on a school night, manning his lights. Fourteen is about the age kids start to lose their Christmas spirit. “It can be a bit like that but I like Christmas lights, it’s the thing I’m into the most, it’s the best part of Christmas I think. It’s better than presents,” Jesse says.As well as spirits, Jesse is raising money for cystic fibrosis research. So far his display has attracted $700 for the cause.
Along Mackenzie Street in Kangaroo Flat several neighbours seem locked in a friendly competition. But one of them has a higher power on their side. Among the flashing kangaroos and elves at work is a nativity scene, crowned with a shining star.Talk about stars. By 11.30 the Christmas lights are being turned off, but the sky is clear and twinkling with the winks and flickers of the greatest light show on earth. And the moon, golden and bulbous, heralds the way home to a plain old porch light, warm and welcoming.
