Festive crunch hits spectacular home lights display
Last updated 11:29, Monday, 29 December 2008
THE woman behind a well-loved Christmas lights display in Workington has announced that this year’s effort will be her last as rising costs and practical issues hit home.
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Carol Holliday has displayed a vast array of lights and festive figures in the garden of her Salterbeck home for half a decade.
The venture began when she saw a polar bear model in a shop and decided it would look nice in the garden.
Since then, the effort has increased, with trains, reindeer and Father Christmas light displays, as well as a giant singing, dancing Santa to entertain visitors on the front step.
Mrs Holliday, of Pearl Road, said: “Of all the ones I have got I wouldn’t know which is the favourite. I know the kids like the trains.”
Previously Mrs Holliday has raised money through the displays for The Sick Children’s Trust, which helped one of her relatives.
But this year, husband Allan has been ill in hospital and she has had no time to arrange fund-raising.
And the reliance on family and friends to erect the lights and take them down, coupled with the cost of powering them, is proving too much.
“The electricity costs have meant a big increase and it’s an increase I can’t really afford any more,” said Mrs Holliday.
“Now I only have them on from about 4.30pm to about 9pm whereas before I used to keep them on a lot longer.”
They have gone ahead with this year’s display, which was lit for the first time on November 5, but when the lights come down after this Christmas most will be distributed among their five children and nine grandchildren.
The rest will go to others who want them.
Mrs Holliday said: “It’s great to see people enjoying the display and to see the kids’ faces but as we’re on pensions it’s too expensive.”
But while Mr and Mrs Holliday prepare to hang up their extension leads for good, two Workington neighbours have vowed to defy the credit crunch and carrying on lighting up their Grasmere Avenue homes.
Mum-of-three Janice Murdock and her friend Lizanne Smith, who has a child and another on the way, began decorating their homes for Christmas two years ago.
Rising utility costs have not put them off and they are determined to carry on to make the children happy.
Miss Smith said: “It’s just something for the kids to make it a bit brighter and more Christmassy for them. The electricity hasn’t really been that much extra.”
Miss Murdock said: “Some of the neighbours think we are stupid and others think it’s quite nice for the kids because there are a lot of kids along here.”
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