For the second year in a row Pat Ashton's carefully placed lights, well decorated garage and large inflatable Santa have won the best lit home in the annual Rotorua Christmas Lights Trail.
For the second year in a row Pat Ashton's carefully placed lights, well decorated garage and large inflatable Santa have won her the best lit home in the annual Rotorua Christmas Lights Trail.
Nana Pat, as she is affectionately known, has spent the last 20 years collecting Christmas decorations.
Whenthe Rotorua Daily Post visited the 78-year-old yesterday there were still a few hooks hanging from the soffit, but the decorations had been stowed away in the roof, in cupboards in the garage, in the tops of wardrobes, in fact "any spare space has a few decorations".
Her collection drew large crowds throughout December, with people at times queuing around the corner of the street to get a glimpse inside the garage.
The garage where Pat Ashton displays her collection of decorations. Photo/Supplied
"I used to set everything up in the foyer of the house, but when the collection got too big it was actually my son that suggested moving it to the garage."
A lot of her decorations were gifts from friends, but she said it was hard for her to just walk past Christmas decorations.
"Each year it gets a bit bigger, some of them I even got while on holiday in Australia.
