Few things mark the start of the holiday season like the process of putting up Christmas lights. Once they're up on the house and turned on, they are an instant harbinger of merry good cheer.
But for anyone who has battled rickety ladders, tangled balls of wire and half-lit strands to get the job done - bound up, as the process is, in neighbourhood one-upmanship and Griswold-esque catastrophes - getting there is often fraught with peril, frustration and some fairly salty language.
Dwayne Birakowski knows the process well.
The Port Moody man remembers Christmases as a kid, when his dad and uncle would wage war with the lights each year. Once it was done, the entire house would be festooned with blue lights and anything else that could be lit up was covered in green and red.
Getting there, however, was no easy task, with plenty of yelling between the brothers.
"We lived in Vancouver at the time and dad was this 300-pound man in the air putting up lights," Birakowski recalled. "It was highly amusing."
So when it came time to festivize the April Road house Birakowski and his family moved into 11 years ago, dad Robert Birakowski, who lived with them, had a few things to say about it.
"I took over the operation but he was the foreman, he dictated everything... And I'm terrified of heights so I always conned him into doing the high lights," Birakowski said and, much like Christmases past, there were some tense moments, a bit of yelling and much snickering on the kids' part.
It was always in good fun, though, and was just one of the many things Birakowski father and son enjoyed doing together.
This year's lighting, however, was a different story. After a nearly year-long battle with liver cancer, Robert Birakowski passed away in February.
Dwayne Birakowski knew he wanted to make this year's light display bigger and better than ever in honour of his dad, and started plugging away on sunny days in October.
But it just wasn't the same.
"It took me a really long time and I got really depressed," he said.
Friends dropped off inflatable Christmas displays - a snowman here, a penguin there - and a pack of them showed up one night to help with the installation.
"They basically came over and drank my beer and ordered pizza and then they left," he said with a laugh.
He had some help winding the 25 strands of lights high up in the tree branches, only to discover when it was done that half the lights were out. Down came the 25 strands to be replaced, and back up they went.
But among the singing Christmas tree, the Santa on a John Deer lawnmower, the Mickey and Minnie Mouse in a snowball fight and the snowmen playing hockey - not to mention the more than 6,000 lights that blink in time to a Christmas soundtrack - is one particularly special touch.
"Grandpa's spot," the patio chair next to the garage where Robert used to spend his days watching the world go by and chatting with the neighbours, is all lit up. Birakowski even made a wooden sign with the word "Grandpa" done up in lights, that the kids - nine-year-old Adrianna and seven-year-old Brendan - got to write messages on.
"Christmas has always been the best time of year, growing up and even now," Birakowski said. "It reacquaints me with my childish side, and I love seeing people coming up and getting a big kick out of the lights."
"His dad was like that too," added his wife, Famena Birakowski. "Always making people happy."
In lights and in life, like father like son.
The Birakowski's lights can be seen from the back alley of 512 April Rd., Port Moody (off Parkside Drive).
@spayneTC
