Christmas tree cheer
By Hayden Moore
CHRISTMAS spirit is rife in local communities as people have pulled together all across the county to light-up their estates.
In a bid to drum up some early-Chirtsmas spirit through some great community spirit, resident’s across Tallaght, Clondalkin and Ballyfermot lit up their estates with Christmas lights.
Verschoyle Park Residents
In estates all across the county, trees have been wrapped and draped in traditional Christmas lights.
In Verschoyle in Citywest, one resident took the initiative to put together a kitty of funds with everyone coming together to raise €1200 in total - and just in time for The Late Late Toy Show.
“With the year that we’ve all had, we thought it would be a nice thing to do,” says Rebecca Creighton, who lives in Verschoyle with her husband and two children.
“Even though we’ve been trying to maybe shelter the kids that much more from the pandemic, they know what’s going on, they can sense it off us.
“So we thought, is there something small we could do to brighten up the estate and make things a little happier.
Christmas lights in De Selby Park
After finding a photograph of a tree on Pinterest, Rebecca sent the idea in to a WhatsApp group that contains resident’s from the estate and everyone got on board to wrap 66 trees in lights.
“I’d just like to thank everyone who contributed because we wouldn’t have been able to do it without them,” she tells The Echo.
“There’s a real sense of community spirit, this pulled us all together and the kids absolutely love the lights.
“It’s a nice little pick me up for the kids and parents in the estate as well.”
Cois na hAbhann Residents with Garda David Leonard and Shane O’Keeffe all took part in lighting up the trees in their neighbourhoods
With the money left over, Rebecca is organising for Santa Claus to visit the estate with a grotto, horse and carriage, hot chocolate van and more set to pop by.
Santa will have no problems spotting housing estates across South Dublin with Bluebell, Knockmeenagh Road, Newlands, Kylemore, Woodfort and Le Fanu lighting up.
Community lights have also been spotted in Kingswood, De Selby, Carrigmore in Aylesbury, Fettercairn and Brookview.
Mick Travers, who lives in Cois na hAbhainn in Old Bawn, spoke of how after seeing photographs of other estates putting up community Christmas lights they decided to do the same.
Speaking about how his wife Julie collected more than €300 from their neighbours for their lights, Mick said: “We had seen a few other estates on Facebook doing it so I said it to Julie.
“We just thought it would be good if we could have the same here and we got a few bob off everybody off the road.
“We wrapped the trees, so every tree got lights on it and they’re pre-set to come on at 5 every day.
“It really brings people together and there’s been a great sense of community spirit around it all.”
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