Roger Moroney: Streets of giant disco balls

I saw the most remarkable house the other night.

A house made remarkable by ... the night.

I think we've all seen one and I think we've all pondered, "I wonder what the power bills are like?"

The Christmas decoration houses.

Some are simply magnificent - there's no other word for it and I take my Santa hat off to those who have mastered the art of design, display, wiring and circuitry.

The one I saw was embellished with great white flowers and of course, there were a reindeer or two set up.

At least, I think there was because there was simply an overload of festive light and features to take in.

It's a fairly recent sort of annual phenomenon, this "turn the house into a Christmas disco" hobby, and as more and more people become involved - be their efforts modest or massive - it's all part of creating that festive spirit.

Although I think I'll stick to the usual lights draped around a baby pine tree.

A baby pine is a tree perfect for two things: displaying lights and creating an indoor play area for the damned cat to plunge at, usually at around three in the morning.

I recall when I was a lad, Dad would pull the old shoebox down from the top of the wardrobe in his room and year after year slowly untwine the tangled artwork called "Christmas lights".

And every year, without fail, he'd plug the thing in and immediately three or four of the old bulbs would expire - through fright, I daresay.

Eleven months tucked away in the safety of a warm shoebox and then you're dragged out and introduced to 240 volts.

Dad would grumble and later get on his bike (we didn't have a car until I was about 10) and go into town to get some more.

He'd stick streamers up from corner to corner and of course within a few days one end would ease itself free from the sticky tape and come drifting down.

More grumbling and back out to the wash house to get the stepladder to put it right again.

True Christmas traditions.

So, hats off to the house decorators who provide beautiful night glows and something for the little ones to gasp at and, I daresay, go to sleep and dream about.

However, some people go just a little further and use their imaginations as eagerly as their building skills.

George Clarke came across a few as he prepared his Christmas special of Amazing Spaces, which appears on Choice on Sunday evening.

In his previous outings he has unearthed a couple who converted a wrecked bus into a holiday home and came across an old underground toilet transformed into an apartment.

Then there was the lady who had a crack at building an ice cream parlour out of an old caravan once used for housing chooks. So, when it came to Christmas houses, he went searching and came up with a few doozies.

Just add lights and yep, they'd be as good as it could get.

-George Clarke's Amazing Spaces, Choice TV, Sunday at 6.30pm:

How about this for devotion to Christmas decorations? A gingerbread house, an underground grotto decorated with shells and a beach hut which doubles as an advent calendar. If it's out there George will find it.

ON THE BOX

New Zealand vs Sri Lanka, First Test, day one, Sky Sport 1 from 10am, Thursday:

It's in Dunedin, so anything could happen on the weather front.

Bafta Celebrates Downton Abbey, Prime at 8.30pm, Thursday:

Crikey, the people who stapled together this rather majestic tale of uppery-crusty family life in Britain during the early decades of last century are getting gongs ... sort of. After more than 50 episodes, a day was finally called on the grand series and it appropriately ended in a graveyard. Had it been made in the US, however, I daresay it would still be going - if it makes a bob, milk it.

So the makers get a special award for their achievement and a highlight will be a performance from Dame Kiri Te Kanawa who of course starred in an an episode as Dame Nellie Melba.

CCTV: Caught on Camera, TV1 at 11.15pm, Friday:

This episode has an interesting angle. Those who have been following this late-night reality diversion will recognise it as showing strange and often dangerous situations caught on closed-circuit security cameras.

But here we have situations showing how people are becoming obsessed with filming each other. So what do we do? We film them. I don't think I quite get that.

Wondrous Oblivion, Maori TV at 7.30pm, Saturday:

How fitting that on the third day of the first test between the Black Caps and Sri Lanka, there's a film with a cricket theme on telly. Maori TV often comes up with films that have a point of difference and this is one of them.

Wondrous Oblivion tells the story of a young cricket-loving lad growing up in England during the 1960s. One day a new family moves in next door - this was of course during the time when people from the West Indies began to arrive in the UK as invited immigrants. The family is from Jamaica and to the lad's delight they set up a cricket net in their garden.

However, not everyone in the neighbourhood is pleased to see the newcomers. It's far from being a classic but has its moments.