Glenncastle home Carp’s Christmas best

CARP – While Christmas may be a month behind us, all this snow is keeping us in the spirit, the perfect time to announce the Village of Carp Business Improvement Area (BIA) Light Up the Village winner.

Frank and Tammy of Glenncastle Drive in Carp were named the 2022 winners, and Frank says, due to an injury, this year wasn’t even their home’s best display.

“I was injured this year,” Frank told West Carleton Online from his home Tuesday (Jan. 24). “Then my in-laws came out and wanted to set it up, so we just did it all out front. No ladders.”

Frank is a big fan of Christmas decorating and an outdoor light shows.

“It’s constant,” his wife said.

“I’m already working on this year,” Frank said.

They say they’re not looking to disturb the neighbourhood with a line-up of cars driving by to see the show, but it is a hobby he enjoys very much.

“Everybody is so nice around here,” Frank said. “Someone will walk by when I’m setting up and be like ‘all right, Frank!’ And then I’ll be tearing down and someone will walk by and say ‘aw no, Frank.’”

You can even tune in to a radio station and listen to music accompanying the light show.

“We try to add more every year,” Frank said.

“He has his workshop going,” Tammy said.

Frank also helps set up a small show at his in-laws’ house.

“It’s a hobby,” Frank said. “I saw someone with a really cool Hallowe’en set up and said I want to do that.”

He says he started about 10 years ago when he and his wife moved to Carp and had room to set up such a show.

The first year his display had 7,000 lights. This year around 17,000 and next year he is shooting for 30,000. Many of the set-ups involve lifhting boards so he can control the lights, the colour, the duration, which ones turn on when, and he can do it all from a small remote control device. He says the lights themselves cost about $1.25 each.

“It’s amazing,” Frank said. “It’s all controlled by a little computer. It adds up. It’s very expensive. I had to inch my wife along to get her to agree.”

Frank says he’s part of a larger community that loves putting together Christmas (or other holidays) light displays around Ottawa and beyond, and that community communicates a lot.

“The hobby is a real tight-knit community that wants to help each other,” Frank said.

Around October the community starts to get to work, and Frank says the community’s Zoom room is very busy at that time with people helping each other out with their displays and display questions.

BIA board member Tara Azulay was on hand to present Frank and Tammy with their prize, a beautiful basket filled with a collection of goodies from the village’s businesses.

“Thank you for doing this,” she said. “It makes the village look so nice.”

The lights are already down for this season, and Frank says he’s very strict about the times the light show runs out of respect to his neighbours. During the week, the show’s over at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on weekends. Sharp and no exceptions.

Unfortunately, Frank and Tammy did not take photos this year, but if you would like to see a YouTube video of their house from 2021, click here.