Last night some of the display was vandalised and destroyed.

As a result 300 of the 6700 lights have been removed either due to being stolen, damaged, or as a safety precaution to prevent future attacks.

Serious thought is being put in modifying the display for 2007 by moving all ground lights to the roof or elsewhere in a location impossible to steal without a ladder and/or special tools.

It just occurred to me that there have been significant improvements over the years of Ryan’s Christmas Lights, which for a second took me down memory lane.

• Back in 1999, I can remember starting out with those big C7 or C9 large bulbs which ran at 240 volts. They activated only when the outside light sensor was triggered because they used a sizeable amount of power.

• In 2000, the first low-voltage fairy light set was put up. I cannot clearly remember 2001 or 2002, but I do know small improvements occured with a few extra low-voltage light sets.

• Then 2003 saw the addition of a musical soundtrack played over cheap and old speakers hidden behind a brick near the front door. About $50 spent on the display, with $10 in power.

• 2004 saw the whole garden beginning to have some light, and the display expanding out onto the verge. This was the golden year where I took my display from a small activity on the side to a major year-round project. $300 was spent that year, and it was the first year that I stayed outside during the night. This occured during the final week leading up to christmas.

• 2005 was the big year. This year saw computerisation begin, and brand new soundtrack for the lights, and a whopping $1070 spent on upgrades. Santa also managed to make an appearance almost every night during December. The display made an appearance on the Seven Network and in the Messenger Newspapers.

• Then came 2006, where the computerised sequence with accompanied musical soundtrack was re-created from scratch with different musical pieces. The roof was redesigned for computerisation, and the display expanded backwards (or sidewards) to our new neighbour’s display. Finally, the musical soundtrack begun transmission over the FM radio frequency, however one can only hope the media – both local and national – will be happy to publicise the Christmas light show (yes, a show… no longer just a simple display) by any means possible, such as a weather report being conducted outside of the display as the sun is going down with footage of the display running from the previous night as they plug it. This year the display won a competition run by the Seven Network!!

• Next up in 2007 will see the introduction of bi-coloured bushes. By that I mean two different coloured light bulbs, both controlled by computer. The display has already broken the 10,000 lights mark even before 2006 is over