Dreaming of a bright Christmas...and it’s all for a good cause

Every year certain households pull out all the stops with their Christmas decorations, decking their halls, walls, roofs and gardens with an extravaganza of twinkly lights, gigantic Santas, inflatable snowmen and bucketfuls of fake snow.

Some of these exuberant December displays are for the homeowners’ personal enjoyment, but for others they are a great way to raise money for charity.

One such light show is at the Tandragee home of Tim Hancock, who is crazy for Christmas, admitting the big day is on his mind ‘365 days a year’.

Over recent years the 21-year-old, who studies Business at the University of Ulster, has raised almost £12,000 with a dazzling and joyous array of illuminated festive figures in the family’s front garden.

Tim explained how he got the bug for going big with Christmas.

‘‘When we were growing up in Lurgan dad bought two figures for outside, a Santa and a snowman, one for me and one for my brother.

‘‘The whole idea was that we would grow up with them and then we would each take one to our own houses in the future.

‘‘But I thought differently, I decided to go a bit bigger than that.’’

The turning point came for Tim in 2011 when he saw a television documentary featuring three Christmas displays in the UK which raised money for charity.

‘‘I thought it would be cool to try and do it too,’’ said Tim, ‘‘so I set about looking out for different lights and tried to build up my collection. We were very fortunate that stuff came up at the right time and the right place.’’

Tim said he favours ‘blow-moulded 3D plastic figures’.

‘‘They are the main thing that we have in our display.

‘‘We started to collect them one by one and I got in touch with the folks from the TV documentary and so we started to build up a UK Facebook forum.’’

A year later Tim had accrued a ‘sizeable collection’ of lights, which were put on display in the family’s front garden for the local community to admire, and in the first year they fundraised for a local charity called Charlene’s Project, which provides education for children in Uganda.

Tim’s fervour for his hobby ramped up and soon he was trawling websites like Gumtree and eBay ‘‘at least once a day’’ for festive regalia.

It was during one of these searches that he ended up buying a large collection of lights from local man Andrew Wilson, who was famed for his own displays in Maghaberry.

‘‘Andrew came to see our display and we continued to build up that friendship with the family, but unfortunately between then and the summer of 2014, Andrew got very sick and was diagnosed with cancer and passed away.’’

It was then the family decided to fundraise for Marie Curie.

‘‘Marie Curie had looked after Andrew and his family so well during that period of illness and Andrew used to collect for Marie Curie himself with his own display, so I decided we’re going to dedicate it to Andrew’s memory and fundraise for them on his behalf,’’ said Tim.

The family moved from Lurgan to Tandragee three years ago and, naturally, all the light-up decorations moved with them.

‘‘The house has a much bigger garden, so that allows us to do a much bigger and more organised display,’’ said Tim.

‘‘We have about 300 blow-moulded figures, but we only put out about 150-180, it varies every year.

‘‘We have about six different themed sections, including the North Pole, the nativity and Santa’s Workshop, in the garden. We stick very rigidly to those themes and if something doesn’t fit in with a theme or if there isn’t enough room in that section we don’t just jam it all in for the sake of putting it out.

‘‘We take time to go through the design and get it right and that’s really what takes a lot of the set up time. There’s obviously certain things that go out every year without fail and then there’s maybe another light that will appear this year that you won’t see for a couple of years.’’

Since 2014 the Tim’s Lights display has raised £11,600 for Marie Curie and almost £300 for Charlene’s Project. People aren’t charged to see the display but they can make a donation.

‘‘We don’t take any monies out for costs,’’ said Tim.

‘‘We buy the lights ourselves, we maintain them ourselves, we put them up ourselves. Anything that is a cost to put on a large scale charity display, so the increased electric bill, the increased cost of cabling, we have a number of loyal business partners who sponsor the display and their contributions go towards off-setting some of those costs.’’

So how do his neighbours feel about the annual eye-popping display? Are they united in his desire to light up the night sky?

‘‘They are very good and very understanding of what we are trying to do,’’ said Tim.

‘‘We engage well with the local community, we keep in touch with the council, the police, the emergency services. road services and keep those relationships good.’’

And come Christmas Day, Tim can take a break from spreading festive cheer.

‘‘Christmas Day itself is probably one of the most relaxed, that’s because the run up to it been so busy with people calling to see the lights.’’

But the festive feeling is always there for this young fundraiser as he plans how to let it glow again next year...

‘‘Christmas is always in my head, I’m always planning something or doing something with the lights. If it’s not in the forefront of mind, it’s in the background.’’

Meanwhile, in Larne twinkly lights and decorations festoon Gareth Watson’s home and front lawn.

As well as being a big talking point in the area the spectacular illuminations also raise money for Larne Adult Centre.

The Watson family home on the Coast Road was a beacon of Christmas brilliance for around 18 years, but this year Gareth, 38, is moving the lights to his own home just off the Old Belfast Road.

Gareth explains how his festive fixation began.

‘‘A friend of the family bought me my first decoration when I was a kid and I built it up over the years.

‘‘We started doing it for charity about 15 years ago and we’ve been doing the full, proper show for the last 10 years.’’

Last year the lights raised £1,700, the previous year it was £2,400.

‘‘It’s always around the £2,000 mark,’’ said Gareth, explaining that the donations go to a cause close to his heart.

‘‘My uncle has Down’s Syndrome and it was my grandparents who set up Larne Adult Centre.

‘‘They founded it many years ago whenever there was nowhere for disabled children to go whenever they hit the age of 16 or 17, so they started it all off.’’

Gareth said putting up the display takes around two or three days and they have about 40 or 50 illuminated decorations.

‘‘I put the lights up quite early because I work on P&0 ferries and am away for two weeks - I put them up this year around the middle of November.’’

And the big switch-on is great opportunity to foster community spirit.

‘‘There’s loads of children living in our street and they love them. The first night we had a few neighbours into the house for a few glasses of mulled wine - it’s a great time of the year to get everybody together.’’

l Gareth Watson’s lights are at 14 Clover Brook, Larne, BT40 2UP.

lVisiting Tim’s Lights: 83 Armagh Road, Tandragee, BT62 2HS. Open 4:30pm – 10pm (weekdays), open 4:30pm – 11pm (weekends). No booking required. Check social media for info regarding unplanned closures due to weather conditions.