Christmas spirit continues

Greg and Jenny''s Christmas lights are on display for the last time and a silent auction is taking place with all proceeds split evenly and donated to The Heart Foundation and Cancer Council. 202199_07

By Jessica Anstice

A magical Christmas light display in Kooweerup has a heart-warming meaning behind it this year.

Resident Jenny Topperwien, along with her family and friends, took it upon themselves to honour her late husband Greg Topperwien the best way they knew how – by continuing his great tradition of creating a glorious Christmas wonderland outside his house.

Every year, for the past 20 years, Mr Topperwien would spend hours on end decorating the family house with festive lights, ornaments and trinkets, inflatable characters, and holiday décor.

Sadly, Mr Topperwien passed away in July, after he was diagnosed with cancer.

The Christmas lights are on display for the last time and a silent auction is taking place with all proceeds split evenly and donated to The Heart Foundation and Cancer Council.

“I think he’d be pleased that we’re doing this. I just know this is what he would want us to do but I can’t decorate the house every year,” Mrs Topperwien said.

“Greg would hate it if the decorations were just left in the cupboard and nobody ever saw them.

“My hope is that some local people will buy some of his decorations outside and put them up at their house so I’ll be able to go around and see those.”

Mr and Mrs Topperwien’s Christmas spirit started about 1990, when Mrs Topperwien asked her husband if they could decorate their house in Narre Warren.

“The first year we had them around the gutter and we also had a blow up. The next year he bought a load more and it just grew, and grew, and grew,” she recalled.

“It grew so much so that my friends at church used to come and see it and they said ‘we need to have one night special’ so we had a special night called Carols by Topperlight.

“The local ministers used to come and the Salvation Army would sing carols. When it was really big we probably had 200 people there.”

Five years ago Mr and Mrs Topperwien made the move to Kooweerup, where they planned to retire.

“Christmas was Greg’s favourite time of year,” she said.

“He used to do it all on his own – he would start in November and when he came home each night he’d do one lot.

“In December, he would be out the front every night and his excuse was ‘got to guard the decorations’ but in actual fact he loved talking to all the people.”

All in all, the installation of the lights took eight people a full weekend to complete.

The lights are on display at Amber Lane in Kooweerup and are well worth a trip and a bid in the silent auction, which will wrap up on 23 December.