End of an era: Kath and Ron Renfrew with their beloved Santa light.
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For the past 15 years the house of Ron and Kath Renfrew was the go-to destination for Christmas lights, but 2023 will be different.
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In a moving post on the popular Cobram 3644+ Facebook page, Mr Renfrew said due to age the couple would no longer be putting up Christmas lights.
Talking to the Courier, Mr Renfrew said the lights display started small and just got bigger and bigger.
“We used to live near Geelong and we decided to put up a couple of sets of lights, and then the year later we put up some more and it just grew and grew and grew,” he said.
“We ended with about 35,000 lights in the end.”
Putting up so many lights was a mammoth operation, beginning in November every year.
“It takes about a week to put the decorations such as the reindeer together and another two weeks to put it all out and set up,” Mr Renfrew said.
Early days: Ron with Dom and Georgia Renfrew.
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For Mr Renfrew and his wife, the effort was worth it when seeing the reactions.
“Seeing the looks on the kids’ faces and the adults’ too. We had a very big display,” Mr Renfrew said.
“People walk into the gate and say ‘wow’, we have a lot of lights here that you wouldn’t find anywhere else.”
According to Mr Renfrew, the Santa that had 3300 LED lights inside him was a favourite of the kids, while his favourite decoration was the angel, which was hung up and had a two-metre wingspan.
“Santa was good but my favourite was the angel,” he said.
Asked what he would miss most about putting on the display, Mr Renfrew said it was the social aspect.
He and his wife would be up and talking to visitors from 8.30pm to 11pm for the 33 days the display was up.
The Renfrews had a donations tin outside their home but never made any money out of the display personally, sending money collected first to a sudden infant death syndrome charity and in later years to HeartKids Victoria.
According to Mr Renfrew, the couple raised an average of $1000 every year.
The lights are now for sale; anyone interested can call Mr Renfrew on 0427 532 207.
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