IN the midst of an unimaginable heartbreak, Miners Rest couple Graeme and Valerie Harris are keeping the Christmas spirit alive.
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Just weeks ago, the couple said goodbye to their daughter Kerrie-Anne who lost a long battle with breast cancer, aged just 50.
But as they have done every year since they moved to Miners Rest in 2016, the family is bringing the joy of the festive season to families all across the region.
The house is covered in Christmas lights, decorations and more Santa's than you can count, while Mr Harris had spent all year tinkering in the shed to create 800 wooden toys which he is giving out to any child who visits the display.
Mr and Mrs Harris' grand daughter Tzara Brooker said this year would be a lasting tribute to her mother, who passed away on November 13.
"This is her year, she loved this time of year," Ms Brooker said.
"She was very family oriented person and this time of year was the time that everyone got together. It was her biggest thing.
"She was diagnosed in 2018 and then she fought really hard, she beat it, it went into remission and then early this year she was re-diagnosed and it was stage four and it spread. She tried treatment after treatment, but nothing worked."
Mrs Harris said Kerrie-Anne had helped set up some of the display before she passed away.
"Although she was sick, she helped me to set up the special room that we do every year," she said.
"She helped make a lot of little things. We've decorated her room because she had stayed with us, so we've made her room a little memory for us all."
Mrs Harris said the family had always decorated the farmhouse in Millbrook, but because it was so rural, rarely would they get visitors.
"When I first saw the house I thought, terrific, I can display everything at last, we can show it to everybody. In Millbrook they'd go past, give us a toot but that was about it."
She said her first decorated, a sleeping baby Jesus was bought 40 years ago and the collection had gradually grown each year. She said with her own birthday on November, every year the family would celebrate together on that date and give Christmas decorations as gifts.
Mr Harris said he loved to see the joy on children's faces when they were given a gift.
"I've made just over 800 this year," he said.
"We think we probably have enough this year. We made that many last year and we ran out on Christmas Eve. I don't think we'll run out this year, but you never know.
"I make wooden toys. Anything from a ship to a chicken, to a hobby horse, yo-yos, cars and trucks.
"I like doing it, it's great when the kids come to see the joy on the kids faces, I'm retired, it's just good to have something to do."
The Harris' display is in Douglas Crescent, Miners Rest.
