Christmas is significant for many things – celebration, family, friends, gifts, food and of course the lights.
Anyone who knows me or my family knows that no Christmas season is complete without our holiday outside illumination day.
An email from my dad goes out in early October as he picks the Saturday (always in mid-November after Remembrance Day) for the day we all get together for the outside festivities.
This year was Nov. 12. At 9 a.m. myself, my dad, my brother, my brother-in-law and my dad’s partner (my mom passed away in 2019), all gathered on what turned out to be a glorious weather day to light up my dad’s house.
The 30-plus years that we lived in Coquitlam afforded us a larger house and yard for our displays, but we still can go pretty big here in North Delta, albeit with some rules from strata.
In the past couple of years, my dad, since retirement, has started the organization of extension cords and light strings, critter displays and signs in the days prior so the chaos is muted come illumination day.
A hot bowl of chili from the crockpot in the kitchen for a quick lunch break is always part of the fun as are the hot coffees and Bailey’s!
There is always some “tweaking” once all the lights go on that night and this year was no different as dad and I were out Sunday afternoon re-wiring and re-stringing a few sections. He added a few signs and flood lights Monday afternoon and this year’s display is a wrap. Go online to our website to see some photos with this column.
Now that our festival light fun is over, we need to see your displays. So South Delta, as we have in the past, the Optimist will be presenting its annual list of light displays in our Dec. 15th edition.
If you haven’t done so already, email us (ijacques@delta-optimist.com) some details about your display and a few photos to be included in our list. May your holiday display be extra bright this Christmas season!
