’Tis the season for houses to light up the dark

Christmas bells peal out into the winter dark while angels rub shoulders with Santa Claus in a blaze of light on the roofs of houses going that extra festive mile for charitable causes.

The lights may be spectacular, but they are not just mere seasonal eye candy —they’ve raised thousand for charity in the past few years.

The official switching-on takes place at the home of Neilus and Margaret Lehane in Knockavilla, near Crossbarry in Cork, on Sunday at 5pm.

It takes months to prepare the display, which begins some 200m from the house — Neilus starts work on it as far back as October.

There are carol singers, a life-sized crib, and snowmen; candy canes and angels, herds of reindeer and lots and lots of Santas.

“There’s a Santa in a helicopter and a Santa on a bike and a Santa who can accommodate children on his knee,” says Margaret, a social care worker. “There’s a life-size Santa by the entrance who plays music when you walk past. The trees and shrubs are covered with thousands of bulbs, and on the roof there are angels and reindeer, Santa Claus, bells, flashing Merry Christmas signs. Every year we add more to the lights, and people have said to us it’s like Cork Airport.

“There are hundreds of different pieces.”

It’s been 15 years since the couple began to showcase their magical Christmas display, after Margaret’s sister brought home some light-up reindeer from the USA.

Ten years ago the seasonal extravaganza had become such a hallmark of Christmas that the couple were advised to put out a donation box for charity — and since then the display has raised more than €32,000 for Cork’s Marymount Hospice.

The electricity to run the lights costs an extra €600 for the month, but the couple pay for this themselves — 100% of donations go to Marymount Hospice.

The couple’s bungalow, which is situated on top of a hill on the Crossbarry to Brinny road is well sign-posted — the hundreds of visitors who annually make the trek from all over West Cork as well as the city, simply have to follow the thousands of lights which line the road for about 200m to the house.

Several friends and neighbours, as well as daughter Eva, step in to help Neilus with the preparations.

This year there’s a fantastic blow-up 7ft Santa sleigh and reindeer all the way from Australia — courtesy of the couple’s son Mark, who now lives there.

And motorists who follow a glow in the night sky near the N20 a few kilometres from Charleville discover a Christmas wonderland around the home of Joe and Bernie Carroll.

The couple and their son, Kevin, 30, have been covering a half-acre site around their home with Christmas illuminations for the past 10 years.

And such has been the scale of the attraction, for the past five years the Carrolls have been raising money for charities through donations from visitors.

Last year they raised more than €4,000 and this year St Joseph’s Foundation in Charleville and Pieta House in Limerick will benefit.

The house is just over a mile from O’Rourke’s Cross.

“Once you come off the N20 towards where we lie at Coolruss, the sky is lit up and we are easy to find,” said Bernie.

However, their lights display is also heavy on electricity.

“It adds about €450 to our ESB bill which we pay ourselves. But it’s well worth it seeing the joy it brings to the children.”