"When we look back at our photos of previous displays, we're a bit embarrassed by them compared to today," said Mrs Hamel, a legal assistant.
Her husband Lee uses his skills as a cabinet maker to design and install the display every year - and he starts building supporting structures as early as August.
"I like to change it around so it's different every year," he says. "Last year it was very busy on the house and Kirsty said it would be better if there were simpler lines, so I tried to work out the ways of doing that."
Putting on the display costs the family about a couple of hundred dollars each year, including about $120 in power. They make the most of the post-Christmas sales to stock up on lights and decorations when they're cheapest.
Kirsty and Lee Hamel put up lights to bring Christmas joy to kids around the neighborhood. Photo / Dean Purcell
"[The sales are] our favourite time, 75 per cent off - I've got my trolley in hand and it's all "get out of my way!"
The display brings hundreds of visitors to the street every year. While not everyone on the street decorates with quite as much vigour, Mrs Hamel says her neighbours always get into the festive spirit.
"We have wonderful neighbours, I can't say enough about the neighbours," she says.
"They just get into it and they put up with the people and they put up with the Christmas music. They're just fantastic."
For Mr and Mrs Hamel, it's all about putting on a great show for kids.
"It's well worth it the joy it brings the children," says Mr Hamel. "With all the work and the stress, we forget about the little ones and Christmas is for them."
Much further south, Frank Sandys' Christmas display has become a local institution.
After moving house three times, the man who becomes Santa and hands out lollies every Christmas Eve has settled on a half-acre plot about a kilometre out of Methven. Opposite a golf course, the darkness of the rural area works as a "blank canvas", he says.
Mr Sandys, a painter-decorater by trade, started his displays "about eight or nine years ago" when his daughter visited and complained his first house "wasn't very Christmassy".
His first display that year started with just a few strands of lights, but today his property boasts two grottos, an inflatable Santa in a jetboat and a greenhouse filled with nearly 100 teddy bears, strobe lights and a Christmas tree.
Despite the extravagance of his display, Mr Sandys says he only started working on it about 10 days ago. He puts in about $4000 of his own money each year to run the show, and often travels to Australia to source new decorations.
Sapphire Drive in Tauranga. Photo / Terralie Hardy
"It just comes to me as I go. Nothing's ever the same," he says. "Each year I keep changing it so it looks totally different."
People travel from far out of town to see the lights and he says they bring particular delight to kids and older people. He also gets a lot of visitors with intellectual and physical disabilities and keeps a driveway clear for these guests.
"Their eyes just try and take it all in," he says, recalling a visitor who got so excited by the display he uttered a few swear words out of enthusiasm.
"When he left [his caregivers said] 'Aw, he'll talk about this for days.'"
Mr Sandys also puts out a donation box for the local fire brigade.
