KAGAWONG—About the time you pass the Hideaway Lodge sign walking or in your vehicle, in Kagawong, is when you see the light off the trees and the road and you know you are almost there.
It is the home of Brad and Chrisanne MacKay, whose front yard is filled with lights on Christmas trees, a gingerbread house, large and small candy canes, decorations and much more.
Mr. MacKay told the Recorder the Christmas extravaganza display is made up of, “25,000 lights. And yes, we added quite a few more lights from last year’s display. And our new gingerbread house (which is six feet high and about six feet in length) has over 1,500 lights on it alone, with gumdrops on the roof and flashing lights.”
“This year we had to cut down some trees on our property and fill in part of the yard for expanded room for the ginger bread house because it wouldn’t fit,” said Mr. MacKay. “We needed more ground space.”
The Christmas light fever hit Mr. MacKay when he was just 10-years-old. “Christmas lights have always been an obsession of mine. I remember it used to be a competition between my parents with our next door neighbours in Toronto.” He said both his parents’ home and the neighbours were similar “and they would put up red Christmas lights and we had blue-green lights. The competition was always furious at Christmas who could have the most lights and put on the best Christmas light display.”
“Dad would always say he had to add a 13th month of payments for hydro during the year (because of the elaborate Christmas tree lights),” said Mr. MacKay. When asked how much more he has to pay in hydro costs per year for his elaborate Christmas light display, Mr. MacKay told the Recorder, “no, it isn’t too bad, actually about $150-200 per year.”
Mr. MacKay said the Christmas slights and display, “is my four wheeler. I don’t have a four-wheeler like a lot of people have, but we have a lot of Christmas lights.”
“Every night at this time of year we see vehicles coming by and people stopping to look at the display,” said Mr. MacKay. “We want people to come and see our Christmas light display.”
