Family spends €25,000 on decorating Ireland’s best lit house

SANTA or any other extra- terrestrial body cannot miss the Donegan house this Christmas after it was once again named as the country’s most illuminated home.

The family from Abbeyleix in Co Laois have been named Ireland’s best lit house on a number of occasions and now claim that the total worth of the decorations adorning their home is in the region of €25,000.

However, they have also set about raising thousands of euro for charity as visitors flock to see the now-annual Christmas lights display.

John and Breda Donegan start planning for their festive display in June, much to the delight of their five young girls.

In past years, the family have raised thousands for their local school and Crumlin Children’s Hospital and this year are hoping to raise more funds for Marian Finucane’s Friends in Ireland charity which supports AIDS victims in South Africa.

Breda said that the Christmas lights display had now become a local tourist attraction.

“It all started six years ago with a small snowman and a strip of lights on the house. The decorations were a bit different and people were amazed as it hadn’t really come into the area before that,” she said.

“The next year we added more and were on the Joe Duffy Show and we said we would keep it going.”

The family then began placing collection boxes close to the house in case anyone felt like making a donation.

They ended up collecting €2,500 in their first year.

Breda said that half the decorations had been bought locally and that the other half came from overseas. The life-size crib which takes centre stage was made by John, a medical engineer.

The latest addition to Donegan’s festive display is a skating family and airplane which came from America and cost a cool €2,000.

“We start to plan in July and early August,” Breda said.

“I like to arrange it and plan it and have some things in certain places, but the crib is the main attraction.”

The lights will be turned off on January 6 and then the cheque for collected monies will be handed over to Marian Finucane shortly afterwards.

“I think it brings a lot of enjoyment to people and we have four girls under the age of five, so they absolutely love it,” Breda said.