For some it’s all about the competition as they splash Christmas lights over bushes and under eaves, but for others the guiding principle of less is more directs their decorating. No matter where people find themselves on the Christmas lights debate, it’s hard to dispute the effort that some Powell River residents put into their holiday displays each year.
Michael McMaster, a classical pianist, has continued on his tradition of home decorations. “A lot of people like lights but some think it’s over-commercialization,” said McMaster. “I think if you’re doing something nice for people, then that’s the important part.”
McMaster has decorated the front lawn of his girlfriend Leila Lynch’s home on Fernwood Avenue with lights and inflatable Christmas characters. He’s set up a 20-foot inflatable Santa Claus that he had to secure to a hydro pole (apparently with permission) on the side of the driveway for fear that the wind would knock it over. Passersby not only witness McMaster’s homage to the jolly big man, but they can also hear it—part of the display plays Christmas carols.
“I had a successful year,” said McMaster, “so I’m celebrating.”
McMaster said he’s been decorating his own house for the past 10 years, but this year he wanted to start the tradition with Lynch.
“I’m a big kid,” he said. “I just enjoy doing this and I think that others enjoy it too. It’s an unhappy time for a lot of people, so if it makes somebody smile then it’s worth it.”
McMaster may have been at this for the past 10 years, but Rio and Anna Pia Cecconi have been decorating their yard on Manson Avenue for more than 40 years. Instead of buying the decorations, Rio makes them. He has a scroll saw in the basement and the need to keep busy during the winter when gardening is out of the question.
The Cecconi front yard has a few dozen handmade wooden Christmas decorations.
“I just started making several each year until I built them up, but I haven’t been doing that for a while,” said Cecconi. “The kids like it. That’s what I do it for. I enjoy it.”
The first decoration he made was a Santa sleigh with reindeer and that was 40 years ago, he estimated. Now he’s moved on to doing more intricate work carving out nativity scenes that stand up on table tops inside his house.
“I have to keep busy,” said Cecconi. “I’m not one who can sit around and do nothing. It takes me a week to put all the lights and decorations up. I have to do a bit a day because I can’t work that much anymore. I’m getting old. It’s work when you get old.”
Elio Cossarin is Cecconi’s neighbour. Cossarin takes a slightly different approach to Christmas home decoration. Despite being 79 years old, Cossarin still climbs up into the two evergreen trees in the front of his house to string up Christmas lights. “I go slow,” he said. Cossarin said that the nativity scene in his front yard is to celebrate the reason for the season.
The ever-popular annual Powell River Recreation Complex Santa Bus Tour is set to take to the streets on the evenings of Sunday and Monday, December 16 and 17. Powell River Transit drivers have volunteered their time to light up buses with Christmas lights and decorations inside and out for the past 14 years. This year they continue the tradition of having a Rudolph bus with antlers and a red nose. The tour is so popular that tickets were all but sold out three weeks ago.
“There are so many wonderful displays around town,” said Patti Coburn, organizer of the Christmas lights tour. “People might want to explore Westview on the first night and then Cranberry, Townsite and Wildwood on the second,” she said. Coburn has shared the tour’s route so people can do their own self-guided tour, but she adds, “there are so many places to see that aren’t on the tour.”
As people head out to look at the lights, drivers are reminded to keep their eyes on the road and pull over if they wish to look at displays in detail.
Westview Christmas lights tour
- Up Abbotsford Street into Kokanee Place and Adams Street.
- From Joyce Avenue up to Alberni Street.
- Length of Manson Avenue.
- Bowness Avenue behind Larry Gouthro Park.
- Fernwood Avenue between Alberni and Duncan streets.
- Ontario Avenue between Duncan and Glacier Street.
- Glacier.
- Manitoba Avenue to Penticton Street and along Gordon Avenue.
- Mackenzie Avenue to Royston Street to Selkirk Avenue to Toba Street.
- Thurlow Place to Mackenzie Avenue to Teakerne Street to Ontario to Theodosia Avenue.
- Length of Marine Avenue to Alberni.
Cranberry, Townsite and Wildwood Christmas lights tour
- Along Joyce to Manson to Drake Street.
- Down Timberlane Avenue to Maple Avenue.
- Along Maple to Oak Street.
- Up Wildwood hill and along Lund Street to Sutherland Avenue.
- Sutherland to Lois Street.
- King Avenue.
- Columbia Street.
- Chilco Avenue.
