JACOB Dowdy has spread watts of Christmas cheer at Lachlan Crescent this festive season after a tough year for his family.
The 15-year-old, who is autistic and has attention deficit disorder, said he spent a week creating the elaborate Christmas lights display at his home.
“There are no Christmas lights on our street so I decided to decorate our house to brighten up the neighbourhood,” Jacob told The Border Watch this week.
“I wanted to do it for my young next door neighbour to give him something to be excited about and to spread Christmas cheer around this area.”
Jacob said his family had faced a number of hardships in 2017 which had inspired him to drive out the darkness with light – hundreds of glittering Christmas lights to be exact.
“My family has had a hard time recently, my dad lost his leg this year,” he explained.
“I thought this would be something nice to do to lift everyone’s mood and get everyone in the Christmas spirit.
“It took me about a week to do, I would work on sections at a time and I didn’t really have a plan – the lights stayed pretty much wherever they landed.”
Kerry Dowdy said she was proud of her son’s sense of community spirit and the initiative he had shown in creating the display.
“He did all the decorating himself, he had his own artistic vision and laid everything out by eye,” she said.
“It’s not a bad effort for someone with autism and ADHD and we are very proud of him.”
Ms Dowdy said despite the fact a few items had been stolen from the front yard, the display had otherwise been well received.
“We have had a couple of items stolen, which was disappointing,” she said.
“Jacob considered taking everything down to prevent that happening again, but has decided to keep everything up until after Christmas.
“Plenty of our neighbours have stopped by to compliment Jacob on his lights.”
Jacob said he will dress up as Santa and hand out lollies to passers by on Christmas Eve.
“One of my cousins will dress up as an elf and be my little helper,” he said.
The lights at 9 Lachlan Crescent are turned on daily at 4pm and turned off at 3am.
