If you haven’t driven or walked past Mike and Margaret Payne’s house opposite the council in Alexandra on the corner of Bringans St, then it’s worth a look before Christmas.

It takes almost two weeks to set up Santa in his sleigh, Mother Christmas and the elves, and a 2.5m tree all lavishly decorated.

“Some of the decorations require a bit of DIY stuff to make it work,” the former thermal power engineer said.

Hauling out the Christmas collection every December 1, the display will stay for the next few weeks, “it makes it pretty hard to mow the lawns otherwise,” he said.

Mike Payne in his Alexandra garden, which he has since transformed in time for Christmas. PHOTO: The Central App

Mike and Margaret and sister-in-law Sandra Kelmsley moved to Alexandra in 1999 - Christmas garden decorations and displays have been one of the family’s retirement projects.

The Christmas garden in the day time. PHOTO: The Central App

But it was actually Sandra who first got them interested in decorating, when they all moved south from New Plymouth. 

They bought a campervan and drove back up there to her house to retrieve the lot - but they’re always adding more to the collection. 

“You do have to keep replacing them, especially the solar ones. And being a power station man I prefer real ones, like 240 volts.”

One guy reckons he can see the top of the tree all lit up from the other end of Bringans St.

The Central App has provided a Christmas lights trail to view all the properties lit up, and you have until the 4th of January to visit homes like 16 Fraser Avenue and remember to vote for your favourites.