At Christmas time in Melbourne I always wish we had an electrician in the family. As a family tradition we adorn our house in thousands of Christmas lights that threaten to short circuit the house. If you know the movie The Griswald’s Christmas Vacation, then you’re on the right track. However, unlike Clarke Griswald, we don’t normally have as many problems and our lights are multi-coloured, not just gold. We also don’t have to contend with the snow, but rather the sizzling heat.
For me, it wouldn’t be Christmas if my house weren’t light up with thousands of flashing bulbs. While the painstaking hours of tying the strings of lights to the roof, walls, fence and trees are challenging, once it’s done the feeling and look is priceless. Every night in the lead up to Christmas my family and I head outside and look at our lights. So too do many cars, who often slow down and park out the front of our house to gaze at our light display.
To be honest, we all get a kick out of the Christmas light viewers, or whom we like to call our fans. I hate to admit it, but my family has been known to hide behind our huge fence and listen to the admirers who walk past. We are also proud recipient of the odd Christmas card, showering us with praise about our beautiful lights.
Like most neighborhoods, we are in unspoken competition with houses in our area. While we have every single house on our street convincingly beat, there is a house a few streets away that manages to up the anti every year. I truly have a love/hate relationship with this house. While I get excited when I see the homeowners beginning to string their lights up in late October, I loath them because they are our Christmas light nemesis.
I swear the homeowners must be electricians because they manage to succeed in electrical feats that are just amazing.
I hate to admit it, but every year they seem to up the anti and produce an utterly amazing display that beats ours. My family and I console ourselves by making excuses, like they have a better house. While this point is true, they always go that step further to be extra special. They now have Christmas music blaring from their house and have a basket of lollies for passerby. Last year they had even managed to set up donation boxes.
We joked that they were probably pocketing the money for new lights, however, it appears it was for a children’s charity. This year it is my aim to beat our Christmas light nemesis. While it is the season to be jolly and giving, it would give me much satisfaction to be the victor in the silent Christmas light war. Two years ago, my sisters and had the same plan and attempted to cut down a large tree in our front yard that we felt was blocking out lighting potential on the house.
To say this didn’t go down well with Dad was an understatement. By the next year we still hadn’t lived down the tree cutting incident, so we decided it was best to make the most of what we had. Therefore, we utilised the big tree and put hundreds of lights within it. This year, my idea is to hire an electrician in Melbourne to help us with ideas.
It sounds silly but we have actually run out of powerpoint and power boards available. And with plans to buy more lights this year, we need to call in the professionals.
I have been advised to try an electrician from Twin Electrics and Plumbing in Melbourne. If you would like to try out their services, you can find out more about them at http://twinelectriciansmelbourne.com.au/.
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