Formosa, Ont. readies village for ‘Christmas extravaganza’

Formosa prepares to turn the town into a Christmas village for an annual town fundraiser. Scott Miller has the story.

It’s a beautiful fall day, but folks in Formosa are already thinking about Christmas.

“This is what we call a ‘Formosa Country Christmas,’ in our little town of Formosa. We’ve been doing this for five years as a nonprofit organization. It’s fully done by volunteers. It’s what we do every year for the first weekend in December,” explained Don Busby, Formosa Country Christmas organizer.

A small army of volunteers will string more than 15,000 Christmas lights on hundreds of Christmas displays around Formosa for the town’s Christmas extravaganza. The big attraction is the drive-thru Christmas cavalcade through Formosa’s Lion’s Park, complete with a giant Santa, snowmen, Christmas light tunnel, and even a spot for Santa himself.

“The whole town, all the houses, everybody in town jumps aboard, and they’re all decorating their houses. There’s no dark spots in the town. Everybody’s on board,” said Debbie Busby, Don’s wife, and co-organizer.

While it might seem excessive to start setting up Christmas displays in early November, it takes that long to get things looking just right.

“We start right after Thanksgiving, first day after Thanksgiving, we start. The first two days is pulling everything out, so there’s a lot of work the first two days, and then basically every day after whenever you want to show up, you show up to help. We have a plan though. We have a committee that’s come up with an idea of what we want to do, and we have a plan, and we just start executing the plan,” said Busby.

People come from all southern Ontario to drive through Formosa’s Country Christmas displays each December. It’s by donation, but thousands of dollars have been raised in the five years the local committee has been running it, and the previous 20 years, the event was run by the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority in Hanover.

“We give to medical clinics, we’ve done food banks, we’ve done our own facilities here in town, the recreation complex. So, the funding all stays locally, and we’re willing to give anything we can to others,” said Busby.

Most of the displays are hand made and painted by the volunteers putting them up. Busby says it takes seven weeks to put up all the displays for Formosa’s Country Christmas, and three more days to take it all down again - but it’s always worth it.

“It’s for the enjoyment, it’s for everybody. If we get something, great. If you can’t afford it, great. Still come have a look,” said Busby.

Formosa’s Country Christmas runs from December 4-7. You can learn more on their website.