2 months ago
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The Drmic family of Upwey started putting up Christmas lights seven years ago, shortly before their first child was born.
Just like Zadie, their display has grown each year – and it costs more and more.
Pia (left) and Zadie Drmic admire their family’s Christmas lights.Credit: Simon Schluter
Zadie’s father, James Drmic, sheepishly admits he spent about $2000 this year on additions to his dazzlingly illuminated home in Glenfern Road, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
New Bluey inflatables now accompany a maze of colourful bulbs strung up across the front yard. A projector beams a catalogue of Christmas films on the garage door each night too.
Pia explores her family’s Christmas display.Credit: Simon Schluter
To do all this, however, takes considerable effort.
Setting up begins in October, and James constantly buys more gadgets throughout the year as he plans the display. A bedroom window has to be kept open across the entire festive season for an electrical cord. An extra $100 is also added to the December power bill. And James has even had to confront his fear of heights to put bulbs on the roof.
But it’s still worth it, he reckons.
“Just seeing people’s faces when they see the lights makes it a great thing to do,” James says.
“When I was a kid, I loved Christmas lights. We used to go to The Boulevard in Ivanhoe and look at the lights all the time. So now that I’m an adult and have kids myself, I just want to bring them the joy I had when I was a kid.”
Some Christmas light displays across Melbourne have become high-tech audiovisual shows.
In Kings Park, in the city’s north-west, for instance, one home gained popularity during the pandemic years for synching dance hit Get on the Beers (featuring then-premier Daniel Andrews) to a plethora of lasers and flashing colours.
Other popular sites include Grange Road in Sandringham, Melrome Court in Kurunjang, and The Boulevard in Ivanhoe.
Zadie runs through an archway outside her Upwey home.Credit: Simon Schluter
The Drmic family display doesn’t blare techno music like some, and Zadie, 7, and sister Pia, 4, remain big fans of their dad’s colourful Christmas passion.
Kerryn Drmic is also happy to go along with her husband’s light project, particularly as they have raised money for charity in recent years from hundreds of visitors to their home.
“I think there’s a high sense of achievement each year,” she says. “We feel really quite proud with what we’ve been able to contribute to Very Special Kids’ fundraising target.”
Kerryn says there is a “healthy competitiveness” with the owners of another nearby house who also put up Christmas lights and raise funds for the same charity, which provides palliative care for children.
Their neighbours are fine with the Drimc display causing a busier street at night over the festive season, Kerryn adds, but there are some benefits when the Christmas show is done.
James and Kerryn Drmic with daughters Zadie (in red) and Pia at their home.Credit: Simon Schluter
“[I am] probably a bit relieved after the lights aren’t flashing through my bedroom every night,” she says.
“But [I am] very proud and [feel] a sense of achievement.”
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