The lights are on at Ponsonby's Franklin Rd to herald in Christmas. As he has for the past 20 years, resident Ross Thorby is spear-heading the community event, where residents decorate their homes with garlands of lights for public viewing until Christmas Eve.
Ross is one of the original founders of the event, which is now an icon of Auckland's Christmas calendar. “We have a local celebrity symbolically switch on the lights at around 8.30pm every year and that's officially the star of Auckland's Christmas,” says Ross when Localist drops by to have a chat to him.
Ross says that the whole event is run by volunteers who are passionate about keeping the lights on every Christmas for Aucklanders, as they have been going since the 1990s.
Almost everyone in the street chooses to participate. “No-one makes any money off the lights, although there was a rumour going around that we get money from the power board! But seriously, the type of people who live on Franklin Rd are not your average suburbanites. “It’s a high profile street, and we have 105 houses who put on Christmas lights every year out of 115 houses on the street. It’s a community event put on by the community in Ponsonby for the whole of Auckland.” The Franklin Rd Christmas lights will turn on during the evenings from December 1 to Christmas Eve. The lights will switch off at 11pm every night to conserve energy.
* Check out this video of the lights at Ross's house from last year!