All is bright with Christmas lights

Peter Watson and his wife Irene have been displaying their Christmas lights every year for 15 years, and their spirit seems to be infectious.

“We try to get every house in the street involved if we can,” Mr Watson said.

“You go downtown and everybody says, ‘when are you going to start doing your lights’, because they all know Granada Crescent now.”

If the dazzling displays weren’t enough, the Watsons also raise money for the Albany Hospice.

“People were giving us money and we said we couldn’t take it, and they said just put it toward your power bill, and we said, ‘no we don’t want that’,” Mr Watson said.

“We got in touch with the council and they said, OK, as long as you donate it to a place that needs it’, so we thought about the hospice.

“In the last three years we’ve given them over $10,000.

“It’s really great – the public is just so generous.”

Andorra Road resident Rob Daniels said he played a certain jolly red-suited man at the Granada Crescent street barbecue every year.

“It’s all for the kids you know, and it gets everybody in that Christmas-y mood.

“There’s the Christianity side of it plus there’s the goodwill side of it.”

Mr Daniels said his grandsons, Alex and Cooper, helped to set up his Christmas lights this year.

“They had a ball putting them up,” he said.

“I try to put them up the first week of December every year and they’ll stay up until the first week of January.

“It brightens the place up a bit – it’s just the spirit of Christmas and it gives the kids something to look at and a bit of joy.”

keir.tunbridge@albanyadvertiser.com