Jane Stewart loves Christmas. And she loves lights. Lots of them.
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This year Jane moved in with partner Ashley Moore, the owner and operator of Taree’s Alabaster Motor Inn on Victoria Street.
And as Christmas draws nearer, she has been on a mission to decorate the motel in Christmas finery in an attempt to ‘Christmasfy’ the main street of Taree.
In doing so, she is challenging other businesses to get into the mood and decorate their businesses “to make the town cheerful,” as partner Ashely said.
“She wanted to put lights in – she’s always said that more businesses need to do it, because it seems to be happening less and less. She said ‘you didn’t do much last year, this year you’re going nuts’.
“She roped me in and now I’ve got a bit of the bug. So we’ve just been trying to get as many lights as possible,” Ashley said.
Making Taree’s main street look pretty is not the entire reason for Jane’s decoration binge.
“She read somewhere that with people putting Christmas lights out, because it’s a sad time of year for a lot of people, the earlier you put lights out the happier people feel. And that’s why she loves doing it,” Ashley explained.
Decoration of the inn was completed on December 1 and the lights switched on. So far, Jane and Ashley have convinced the lessors of the restaurant attached to the inn, Millsy’s Bar and Grill, to follow suit.
They mourn the lack of Christmas decoration in the main street, and say MidCoast Council should also be doing something to decorate for the Christmas season.
“It would be nice to see council do up the streets again like they used to do. I think that would be fantastic,” Ashley said.
MidCoast Council are turning on the Christmas lights in Victoria Street soon.