Takapau couple Brenda and John Blackett have been entertaining locals with colour and cheer for years. Warren Buckland went to see the lights.
If you're talking Christmas lights in Hawke's Bay, the first place on the tip of your tongue should be the small town of Takapau.
Such is the depth of commitment to the festive season of Central Hawke's Bay couple John and Brenda Blackett.
Their Christmas wonderland house has become a December staple in the region for 11 years now, giving the local community a festive experience to remember and return to year on year.
With over 40,000 little lights and hundreds of presents that they give away to people who come to see them, Blackett said they thrived off bringing wonder to children and adults across the region.
"The main aim was to bring joy to children at Christmas and there are a lot of children in this little community who don't have a lot," said Brenda.
John said a timely new feature to this year's display is remembrance trees.
"We knew we needed to do something a little bit different to acknowledge that Christmas will be strange for a lot of families this year," he said.
"People just love it. We thought one tree would be enough and then we ran out of the ribbon that people were placing on the trees - we didn't think it would be that popular but it is."
Brenda and John Blackett in front of one of the many remembrance trees around their fully decorated home. Photo / Warren Buckland
The house and garden is full of tinsel, festive decorations, 95 trees, 4319 teddies and, of course, Christmas lights.
There are nods in the home's windows and around the property to the America's Cup, a Christmas dinner, the Magpies' championship win and Covid-19.
"We decided to make a small display about the pandemic because it's become a huge part of everyone's lives," Brenda said. "It's simple enough for the children to understand, but not get frightened by it."
John added that they even made "socially distanced" crackers.
Last year the Blacketts gave out 700 presents to children who visited their decked-out home and had about 2000 people walk through the display.
This is the fourth year Brenda has been giving out wrapped presents to children and has become her fulltime job, sourcing and wrapping gifts from January onwards.
"We couldn't do it without public help - we get a lot of donations," she said.
However, John said they tried to do the bulk of it on their own.
"We'd like to do it all but we just haven't got that much money. We rely on people bringing their old toys in," he said.
The toys get refurbished by John and thoroughly cleaned by Brenda and a few helpful ladies.
