Let There Be (Christmas) Light

The Husband and I performed a drive-by last night. Before you gasp in shock at the thought that Expat Wife and The Husband might be part of some sort of outback gang, fear not as it was not the sort of drive-by that involves bullets. We were armed only with Christmas cheer. Well, I was anyway. The Husband was a bit of a Grinch. We climbed into the car, put on a Christmas CD and drove to the top-placed houses in the 2010 Karratha Christmas Lights Competition. This appears to be yet another area in which Australia is actually closer to America than the UK – numerous houses in this little remote town, from which the majority of the population leaves over the Christmas period, can be seen from miles away, so bright and colourful are the lights decorating their exteriors. This is very much an American thing and I would have scoffed at it in England – bar some tasteful white lights strung around a tree, I think it’s tacky but that’s just me. However, in a scorching hot, dry and dusty town in the middle of the Australian outback, these outdoor displays really do spread some much-needed Christmas cheer. They are completely over-the-top, of course, but I actually think that’s really rather wonderful in a place that could be July all year round. There is no forgetting what time of year it is at those houses.


At the winning house, you had to peer very closely to see that there actually was a house underneath all the lights and accessories. Multi-coloured lights adorned every inch of the roof and the walls, the fence and the path; twinkling reindeer pulled Santa in his sleigh on both the roof and in the front garden; Santa offshoots popped up everywhere; a handful of snowmen lit up the grass. It was Christmas on steroids. We drove past the turn-off to find that the house was at the very end of a no-thru road which was jam-packed with cars and we would thus have to park up and walk down to it. The Husband was not happy about this – apparently he would deign to drive past the Christmas light-strewn houses but he did not want to be seen getting out and looking at them. There followed a very un-festive argument, which ended in us turning back and parking up by the house. We were not the only ones. Dozens of families had come to gawp at this modest house that, for a month or so, had been turned into Christmas Land. The kids loved it, as did I. I’m not sure his neighbours did though.