TWO teenage boys have joined forces to create a Christmas wonderland on a sleepy suburban street in the heart of Redland Bay.
Faith Lutheran College students Luke Francis, 15, and Michael Mahaffey, 17, have been working on their Christmas light displays at Woodcrest Close since October in anticipation of the hoards of families that will pass through during the festive season.
Mr Francis said it was a tough ask fitting their decorating in around homework and their part-time jobs so they had to work together to get everything ready for the summer holidays.
"I started slowly putting the lights up with a week left in October," Mr Francis said. "In November we started getting the inflatables up.
"My routine was to finish my schoolwork and then go outside to hang the lights up."
"It is hard with two part time jobs. The roof took three days to do because of the heat and the lights being 10 centimetres apart.
"I have spent about $2000 to $3000 just this year. That has gone into things like new wallabies for the front yard, a five metre tall tree, new inflatables and the snow machine."
Mr Mahaffey said he caught the Christmas bug as an 11-year-old while looking at lights with his parents.
He decorated his house for the first time last year using the money he earned working part-time at McDonalds and a fish and chip shop.
"It came towards the middle of November and I decided that it would be the year I put my dreams into place," Mr Mahaffey said.
"Without telling my parents, I went down to the local shop and bought five boxes of Christmas lights.
"Later that night I put them up under the street light out the front of the house. I have kept my dream going since and...now I have a total of 1000 meters of lights on my house."
Mr Francis said they expected about 200 people to visit their street on Christmas eve.
He said the snow machine would be popular with families and would run every evening between 7pm and 9pm from Friday, December 13.
Other attractions include an outdoor projector playing Christmas movies, inflatables and more than 100 sets of lights.
Locals have until Christmas day to see the boys' collection before it is taken down.
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