KAGAWONG—Not in the Christmas spirit yet? Do you like Christmas lights? Well there is a house in Kagawong that you need to pay a visit to!
“Clark Griswold here,” quipped Brad MacKay of Kagawong when he called the Recorder recently. He has again this year set up a Christmas lights and decorations display on his family’s front lawn this year, one that shouldn’t be missed!
“I don’t know exactly how many lights we have, but it’s close to 30,000,” Mr. MacKay told the Recorder. “Collecting and putting up these Christmas lights and decorations is not a disease, as I keep telling my wife,” he quipped.
The close to 30,000 lights adorn Christmas trees, a manger, trees, animals, a large gingerbread house, a large nativity scene and more.
And probably the biggest and at least most obvious addition to this year’s display is a huge sign. “My wife Chrisanne had requested that we added a ‘Merry Christmas’ sign this year,” Mr. MacKay told the Recorder.
The Merry Christmas sign has letters that are two feet high, and the sign is 24 feet wide and sits 10 feet in the air. “It should be pretty visible,” he stated. “Originally, I didn’t think it looked that big, but I realized how big it is when I was hauling it up to a scaffold on my own.”
Mr. MacKay picked up the Christmas lights bug early in life. “When I was a kid in Toronto my parents would light up the family home with Christmas lights and the next door neighbour would as well, so it became sort of a competition. Things kind of snowballed from there.”
Mr. MacKay explained, “my display is what they call a retro display with all LED and incandescent lights being used. Other people with these type of displays use pixels and computers, but I prefer to stay old school.”
And to say his display gets a lot of notice is an understatement. “After we put the lights up, every night we have people come by in their vehicles to see the display,” said Mr. MacKay. “I’ve had times when there was a lineup of cars and I’ve had to wait to get into our driveway. I’ve had to follow other drivers to be able to pull in to the driveway. Definitely, we encourage people to pack the kids in the vehicle and come over and see our light display.”
The MacKay family Christmas light display is one not to be missed! The family lives on Hideaway Lodge road in Kagawong. For those not familiar to the area, once you’re on Hideaway Road you will be driving along and think that maybe you are in the wrong place, but trust me, keep going and you will see the lights as you get closer to the MacKays. Phenomenal!
