A quiet Melbourne neighbourhood enjoys its very own Christmas wonderland every year, thanks to Greek Australian grandmother Eleni Zakkas, who has been transforming her home and garden, in time for the festive season, since 2005.
She might be 80 years old, but that won’t stop her yearly mission to dress her home with colourful lights and bells, festive decorations, Santas and reindeers, spreading the joy of Christmas to her children, grandchildren and the whole neighbourhood.
Eleni Zakkas’ famous fairytale Christmas in Ivanhoe, even made headlines in The Age which published a tribute about this special lady and her tradition to spark joy in the community.
“I started this tradition 17 years ago,” Mrs Zakkas told Neos Kosmos. After undergoing months of treatment for her health, she explains that one day when she and her husband were returning from the doctor’s they saw a shop selling Christmas decorations and went inside. Every year since then, she adds more ornaments to her collection, and with the gifts she receives from her children, her Christmas wonderland becomes brighter and brighter each year.
“If you drive by the house you’ll see that it’s an enormous amount of work for anybody, let alone a woman who is 80,” her daughter Dina told us. “She starts preparing it in the beginning of November to have it ready by the 1st of December, when she turns on the lights.” The festive scenery is there for all to admire until 5 January.
“For me it’s like I’m going on a holiday.” Mrs Zakkas explains that for the last 23 years she has not been able to go away on a holiday, so this provides her with the perfect setting for her imagination to take her on a journey.
“I go out into the garden and when I see it decorated like this, it’s like I am in another world.”
The oldest of her three grandchildren is 16 years old, so they all grew up enjoying their grandmother’s special Christmas tradition.
Eleni and her husband Elias Zakkas, emigrated separately from Epirus in the 1960s and until they retired in 2000, they ran a Milk Bar on Wingrove Road, in Alphington.
Today they live on Sherwood Road, a quiet street in Ivanhoe, in a house with a garden, which was always their dream.
“For 30 years my parents had a milk bar, and they worked seven days a week from 7am to 9pm at night, and so we never really could go on a holiday because of the business. My mother never had a garden, and so, since they got this house, she is making the most of it. She has 75 rose bushes!” Dina said.
“She just loves it. I think it gives her a lot of peace and joy. And the neighbours who are wonderful people, also love what she does every Christmas, and I believe that that makes her happy as well.”
The house, during this period, becomes a sort of landmark, Dina adds. “People stop, cars drive by, they take photos. They all know her by now, and call out to her, and she waves back to everyone.”