By ALESHA CAPONE
CHILDREN smile when they see see the bright lights and Christmas ornaments covering the Altona home of Joe and Jill Inguanez.
However, when the husband-and-wife team decorated their house this year, they had more than festive fun on their minds.
Mr and Mrs Inguanez are hoping families who stop by to see their Christmas display – at 2 Greeney St – will make a donation to the collection they are conducting for the Cancer Council Victoria.
Mrs Inguanez said the couple had decorated their home at Christmas for the past 15 years but this year decided to put their efforts to a worthy cause.
Mrs Inguanez lost her mother to cancer and her husband’s father also died of the disease.
“Cancer touches everybody and I think Christmas is about giving people courage, hope and strength,” she said.
“I think when you’re decorating your house, you’re showing the spirit of Christmas.”
Mr Inguanez spends around six weeks doing up their house for Christmas every year, including two weeks away from work.
He keeps busy decorating the rose garden with fairy lights and elves, putting up a Christmas tree and snowman, fixing Santa and reindeers onto the roof and installing a display with a train, carnival and village.
Mrs Inguanez said she and Mr Inguanez decided to begin decorating their house for Christmas, after her brother-in-law Angelo and his wife Carmen started the tradition 15 years ago.
Their home at 39 Bayview St is another Christmas marvel just a short drive from Greeney St.
Mr and Mrs Inguanez will have their Christmas lights on display from 8.30pm to 11pm every night until Christmas.
The Christmas Lights Melbourne website lists Mrs Inguanez’s home in addition to more than 45 other festively-decorated homes across the West suburbs including Altona Meadows, Burnside, Caroline Springs, Hillside, Hoppers Crossing, Keilor, Keilor Park, Keilor Downs, Taylors Hill, Kings Park, Melton, Point Cook, St Albans, Sunshine, Sydenham, Tarneit, Taylors Lakes, Werribee, Williamstown and Wyndham Vale.
See http://www.christmaslightsmelbourne.com.au/ for more information.
