If you’re looking for someone to light up Christmas – Phil Osmond is your guy.
The Petrolia man has spent nearly a week stringing lights on and around his home on 528 Maude St. creating a musical synchronized light show.
It’s something Osmond has always wanted to do. “I have a three-year-old boy…now he’s at an age where I feel that he’ll enjoy it. It was always something I wanted to do,” he told The Independent as strains of Jingle Bells filled the air and lights flashed constantly.
It wasn’t easy. Osmond spent three days and got help from his neighbours to put the display up. “My wife says she hasn’t seen me for a week because I’ve been working outside,” he laughs.
“We always pick away at it. I come home and I’ll put up a string here and take the tape and do something there so it was kind of something that grew, grew and grew.”
Osmond liked doing it – except for hitting the high spots. “The roof is a bit high – it’s about 30 feet…I always worked in a two-man team with neighbours.”
And how do the neighbours like the Clark Griswald-esque display? “They all enjoy it. They say ‘you have to do all the trees! You have to do this next year!’ Then I say ‘Okay, then you have to come help!.’”
In fact, it was a neighbour who suggested Osmond make the display a charitable event. He’s placed a box at the end of the driveway asking visitors to the 20-song display to give a donation to The Inn of the Good Shepherd to help people during the Christmas season. “It was a no-brainer.”
Osmond hopes to make this a yearly event. Its just year one, so we’ll start medium and work our way up,” he says.
“This is a starter kit. It goes much more elaborate – it gets much bigger,” he says adding he may need a lift truck to complete all the trees next year.
