Post 4- The Wicked West

Following the release of the 4KQ Christmas lights winners 2016 list yesterday, Jess and I set off with the latest Pentatonix Christmas album in hand, on a lights tour to discover the best of the Western Suburbs.

Here are a few of the highlights:

We kicked off our trip last night at Tindle Street Redbank Plains. We were greeted (and handed a candy cane) by the son of a father and son team who built this display. Full of an eclectic and inviting mix of light figurines, lights and miniature Christmas village displays. The place had a great family atmosphere but overall felt a little bit messy with no cohesive colour, story or theme. With a little tidying and with better curation, this could be a better display. Watch out for local cat Diva (Jess gave her a 10/10). Not an absolute must see, but if you are in the area, it's worth checking out.

From there we headed back towards some displays in Riverhills just passing some displays in Forest Lake and Richlands, but nothing really worth mentioning there. When we arrived at the house on Kaputar street in Riverhills, it had plenty of colour but mixed and mixed the interesting themes of Australiana and religion. A finalist entry in the past, I do remember this display with more sounds and bubbles, but this year it seemed a little quieter, a little more lackluster which is a shame.

We then arrived at Burwick Close Middle Park, our first automated lights display of the year! I love displays like this. It very much relies on the use of light and a great way to entertain and tell a story if done right to engage the community. There were some great concepts and ideas but after about 30 sec of the 5 min display I could feel the creator ran out of ideas. He either didn't give himself enough toys to place with or hit the ground running to soon. In the excitement of these exhibits, it's soon easy to do. It's worth checking out if you are nearby, tune into 99.9FM in your car and sit back in the aircon! Be sure to donate some lose change to the Starlight foundation here!

From there we headed down Everard Street Neighbourhood precinct in Westlake. Neighbourhood precincts are great. It's incredible when so many houses get involved in one area. The street had a very cohesive story throughout. Not the winning neighbourhood of Brisbane but worth checking out. Plenty of great simple ideas, and colour. Special Mention to one of the house with a strong white and pink theme with reindeer's.

From there we headed to Carragundi Road Jindalee, winner of Western Suburbs Category 2016. A must see, and a great interactive display for the family. This house goes all out. You enter the property from the front and from there takes you on a journey through arches and conopys of lights down alleys of exhibits through to the backyard where there is a small maze, a colouring in station for the kids and also lots of other little Christmas display set ups and figurines. Nice mix of colours, lots of lights but no centralised theme. Although it felt a little lackluster it still felt well composed. Didn't really work with the architecture of the environment ie plants, fences and the house itself. But overall great atmosphere, looks impressive plus Santa was there as well!

We then headed over to Hawk Place in Sinnamon Park to Brisbane's winning neighbourhood display. A culdersac in which almost every house had involved themselves in some way. Beautiful Fairy light and figurine displays as well as some actual colour projection lights on some house who didn't have the time to set up fairy lights. It was still a great idea and a simple way to stay involved. I'm not sure if it was intentional but a beautiful underlying theme of blue LED ran down the street. It kept a look of unison amongst the houses and tied it all together. This one is worth checking out.

Finally for the evening we decided to head out to Bellbowerie to check out the Western runner up. It was worth it. Probably my favourite for the night. A large front yard with beautiful well thought out and curated light displays. There was a flowing light waterfall with a river of blue light flowing through the property with green LED grass and white LED snow with appropriate figurines for each area. Even a multicoloured land looked spot on. Very conceptual, executed well. Proving, simple well thought out ideas work best. A few elements let the display down like a bush haphazardly wrapped in multicoloured rope light and the side fences highlighted badly in lights. If they could incorporate those ideas further in the future, I think this will make a perfect 10. Check it out!

I hope this has inspired you to check out out some of the displays of the west. Get out now and check them out before they get too busy.

Catch you on the south sides next. laterz.

PS 4KQ have a Christmas Lights app to make finding and navigating to displays nearby even easier. Click here to download!