As she turned the corner this was what she saw..
She stopped the car and took this snap – mainly for me. It was absolutely covered in lights. She tells me that there literally wasn’t a square centimetre that wasn’t covered in some sort of Christmas light. In the front garden you can see the inflatable snowmen and other characters. As she took another photo the lady in the house stepped outside.
“Come inside”, said the lady, “‘av yow got a bab?”
Now I should just point out that we live close to the Black Country and I personally grew up in Wednesbury, so the local “twang” is fairly common. If you’re having trouble with the translation it basically means, “Do you have a baby or a child?” Billy was strapped in the back – Emily had borrowed my car and he was quite happy looking at the dazzling array of colourful lights.
“No, you’re OK love, I was just taking some snaps – it’s lovely”, said Emily. To be honest she didn’t really want to take Billy into a strange house, but the lady asked something else..
“Come on in darlin’, dow be daft. Cum ‘n see Santa”.
Now this was puzzling. What the heck was Santa doing in this house? Surely he should be in a shopping centre somewhere meeting lots of kiddies? Emily decided that this was worth a look, definitely. She unbuckled Billy and went inside.
The gates, which also had lights on, opened up to reveal yet more lights. Inside it was like Santas’ Grotto. Presents everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Emily has been telling me about it, and there’s just hundreds of gifts. There, sat inside, was Santa. Billy went mental – screaming, kicking, waving his arms. He’s nearly two years old but the sight of a strange bloke in red with a white beard is perhaps a little too much. I can only presume that Santa is ready and waiting for visitors at all times, because he was a happy a jolly fellow and gave Billy two presents. Emily asked how long it took to do all the lights and was told that they started in August. I’m not surprised one bit. It’s epic. The hundreds of gifts were all bought by the people in the house too – they do it purely out the goodness of their own heart.
You might think that I’m writing this to poke fun at council estates and massive lighting displays but believe me – this is far from it. These people are spending their own money and time buying gifts, wrapping them up, putting lights up, dressing up as Santa (kids, we all know that the real Santa can’t be everywhere) and not asking for a penny. Emily tried multiple times to give the lady some money but she wouldn’t have any of it.
When Emily left there were dozens of kids outside the house. Apparently they were waiting for a reporter from the local paper and the kids had come out thinking that Emily was from the papers!