Issue 228
Local News for Local Communities
Wednesday 18th December 2024
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Rolleston Men’s Shed Pages 2
Fishing Season Rules Page 6
Christmas in Selwyn Page 10
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CHRISTMAS ON CHANDLER WAY If you don’t see the lights first, then the brightly red-painted letterbox with ‘North Pole – letters to Santa’ and other colourful, inflated Christmas characters are dead giveaways that something special is happening at this Rolleston property. On Facebook, Hayleigh Clarkson, the owner and creator of this festive life-size Christmas diorama, said, “You'll find the letterbox in front of the inflatable dog and behind the festive sausage dog. That is a sentence I never thought I'd write!” Hayleigh says her interest in creating Christmas displays started when she was around 16 or 17 years old when there was a huge Christmas display in Dunedin. “There was an entire street – Friendship Drive in Waldronville – that we would visit every year. And one year, I asked my mum if we could add lights to our house. So, we started with a basic net curtain of lights on the front window and some multicoloured ones wrapped around the handrail
on the stairs,” she says. When Hayleigh moved in with her husband, Dean, in 2009, she bought a couple of Christmas lights sets to put up. “I loved the lights; they always made me happy. So, each year I'd go out and buy another set or two to add to the display. And one year, around 2012, I bought my first inflatable decoration, which was a Santa with some reindeer. And I remember thinking that this means we’re taking the decorating seriously.” Around that time, Hayleigh says they moved to Hamilton had suddenly had stores that stocked more impressive decorations. She suddenly had more options for her displays. “My biggest purchase was our first year here in Rolleston when I saved all year to buy the Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer display piece on the fence,” says Hayleigh. “I remember seeing those huge display lights at Friendship Drive and finally felt like we were able to add one to our display.” In the beginning it was just
Hayleigh setting up the display but now Dean is much more invested in how it looks. “I've always done it for the kids because Friendship Drive had such a huge impact on me and really brought the Christmas magic - that excitement of
Santa and how magical all the lights looked,” says Hayleigh. “Last year my husband helped me build a Santa's Letterbox so kids can post their letters. Reading those letters brings me a lot of joy.
Continued on page 2….
Hayleigh Clarkson with some of her magical Christmas displays on Chandler Way in Rolleston. It takes all of November to get the display in place with the help of her husband, Dean.
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