By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
All this glitter is a history of Christmas gold…
AFTER 20 years as a beacon of festive cheer, Doveton’s most famous Christmas-light house is facing its final curtain.
For the last time visitors will see the array of comical wooden cut-out elves, the candle made of a multitude of globes, the soaring reindeer sleigh and the toppled Santa on the Power Street home’s roof.
There is also the enchanting snow scenes among kangaroo paws, the well-worn climb-on wooden fire truck and luminous window displays etched in so many people’s memories.
Gone too are the basket of free candy canes and the 1000-odd gift bags of sweets and books that are given away to children – for some their only Christmas gift.
The fancy-dress clothes, the Elmo and Cookie Monster noughts-and-crosses, the Christmas stories and activities – each element added to year on year – will soon be no more.
It’s the end of an inter-generational tradition where those who visited as children later bring along their children and their children’s children.
They come in their hundreds every night in December.
Sadly Ruth Murray, now wracked by arthritis, and her daughter Jenny Colvin just can’t sustain their wonderland beyond this coming Christmas Day.
But the pair could be said to have gone out with a bang.
This year’s celebration started with a rollicking backyard party complete with live band and five sizzling barbecues on 1 December.
It drew strangers and neighbours together until late in the night.
“I’m still getting over that one,” Ms Murray said ruefully.
Ms Murray modestly started this extravaganza, cutting out a character or two out of her imagination and installing them in her front yard.
Community interest grew and so too Ms Murray’s creative fervour.
So prolific is her art that it takes two months to unpack and set up her magical world.
“Everything I thought of during the year, there’d be a spot for it,” she said.
For the pair, they are comforted with wonderful memories, such as the toddler who crawled into the nativity scene and was found curled in sleep.
Of course, the party is not over yet. Expect a couple of visits from Santa on 23 and 24 December, 8pm to 10pm.
The end will come when the Sleeps to Go sign winds down to zero.
Each installation will be packed up and given away to grateful families.
Over coming days, it’s left for the rest of us to savour this piece of community gold before its glitter goes.
