This Niagara street takes Christmas very seriously — wrapping every house in lights

When a house popped up for rent on Rio Lane, Sarah Sawchuk knew she had to move there. She's obsessed with Christmas — and decades of tradition has made the small street in St. Catharines, Ont., a Niagara holiday mecca.

Come Christmastime, the houses deck out their facades and front lawns with elaborate holiday inflatables, homemade winter cutouts and thousands and thousands of Christmas lights. You can see the glow from several streets over.

"I have been coming here for years since I was a kid," she said. "As soon as Rio Lane came up to rent, it was like a dream come true."

Sawchuk's driveway is lined with illuminated candy canes, while various fake trees and blow up animals dominate the front lawn. Christmas music blares out of a faux holiday mailbox alongside the lawn's centrepiece: an inflatable moving carousel.

Inside, she's taped more than 250 red, green, silver and gold Christmas bulbs to her living room ceiling.

"Every year I buy more, so every year it grows," she said. "I just love doing it."

See all the Christmas lights on Rio Lane

5 years ago

Duration 0:52

The St. Catharines, Ont., street has been decorating their houses for 40 years

Every house lit up this year

The tradition was started 40 years ago by the late Rio Lane resident Don Laws. He spearheaded the festivities for many years, but it's since been taken over by neighbours. They also collect non-perishable food donations for a local community organization.

Most of the street's houses are duplexes, so the level of decoration can range wildly from one side of a home to the other. Some opt to go all out, while others keep it simple with basic strings of light. This year, every single house participated. But that's not always the case.

"There's been neighbours on the street in the past, older people, that want to shut it down," said Kevin Majkut, who lives across the street from Sawchuk.

"I do what I do. You like it, you like it, you don't, I don't really care."

It takes a lot of time and effort to put together a good display. Majkut has spent years gathering his "pretty big" collection, which includes a Christmas spirit robot and a clock counting down the seconds to Christmas day.

And as the big day ticks closer, the street gets busier with cars lining up to see the lights. Brian Breen, who lives a few doors down from Majkut, calls all the traffic the only "pain in the butt."

"It takes probably about five minutes to get to your house and the street's only about maybe 150 feet long," he said. "Part of it sucks but hey man, it's Christmas, you gotta love it."

He moved to the neighbourhood six years ago and has taken on a leadership role, helping dress up the large trees inside the street's cul-de-sac, this year paired with a nativity scene, several Santas and countless candy canes.

"It ain't stopping," he said.

'It makes me feel happy'

Rio Lane is just one stop in more than a dozen extravagant Christmas light displays around the Niagara region. Niagara Families, a local families blog, keeps track of the houses and has mapped out some of their favourites.

Pamela Bowen and her eight-year-old son Rhyder used the map to go on a light tour of their own. He said Christmas is his favourite holiday.

"I really love the lights and I love all the Christmas spirit," he said. "It makes me feel happy."

He wishes lights were put up during other parts of the year too — listing off Easter, Halloween and even St. Patrick's Day as good candidates. While his favourite stop is Rio Lane, he also loves the display at Jim Coates' house on Shetland Crescent.

Coates started putting up lights 20 years ago. He and his wife make their own displays, including a rotating carousel that's being ridden by elves and reindeer. He eventually hopes to pair it with a large wooden ferris wheel.

Unlike on Rio Lane, his house is one of few on the street that's lit up. Coates said he does it for the neighbourhood because of that.

"Christmas is a time for everybody to enjoy it," he said. "We're the crazy ones in the neighbourhood, I guess."

Do you know a street where every single house is lit up for the holidays? Send it to haydn.watters@cbc.ca or tweet it @HaydnWatters and he'll round up a list.