Lights turned out on Christmas displays as cost and vandals strike

You would have been able to see them from space, such was the amount of electricity coursing through his front yard on Cypress Street, and then Phillip Street. 

“The house was just covered in lights,” Mr Cassell said. 

“I absolutely love Christmas lights … they look absolutely sensational.

“Just the spectacle of it, the effort people put it, the original designs and each person’s impressions and designs they use and their creativity.”

This year, Mr Cassell has one set of lights draped across his front window at his new home in Glenroi.

After years of vandals attacking his lights, the rising costs of buying bulbs and wires and more expensive electricity, it’s no longer feasible to decorate his yard.

“I was only on a very low income and a disability pension now and the initial costs of the lights are going up all the time,” he said.

“I can’t say exactly how much it cost [a month], but I can estimate it was $60 or $70 dollars it would have added to the power bill.”

And it wasn’t just the cost of the lights but the time sunk into the maintenance, which Mr Cassell said was “hours and hours” of work that went into going along wires and checking the lighting and the bulbs. 

However, the final nail in the coffin for taking down the Christmas lights was vandals attacking his displays.  

“They take pleasure in just destroying them,” he said.

“That happened to me at least 10 or 15 times plus, there were kids just coming along … I caught one running around my front yard with a pair of pliers going ‘snip snip snip snip’ just for fun, and as I turned up he bolted.” 

Mr Cassell isn’t alone in having his yard attacked, with several former neighbours also having their lights vandalised, and others on social media shared similar experiences.

Canobolas Local Area Command Inspector Adam Beard said he wasn’t aware of frequent attacks on lights. 

“I’d say the instance of vandalising Christmas lights is reasonably rare,” Inspector Beard said. 

“There are not many reports of this occurring.

“Obviously from time to time these sorts of incidents do occur, I’m not aware of any pattern of them.”