Westman Christmas light displays captivating the hearts of Manitobans

CTV’s Joseph Bernacki shows off some of the spectacular festive light displays in Manitoba’s Westman region

On a cold December night in the small community of Austin, Canada’s largest collection of operating vintage farm machinery lies in the snow.

Driving into the place that’s home to Manitoba’s Agricultural Museum, an old steam engine adorned with Christmas lights remains tucked away off the Trans-Canada Highway, waiting to greet people to the farming hub.

What’s known to be an attraction in the summertime, however, has a tradition of welcoming people into their winter wonderland through weekends in December to see hundreds of Christmas lights.

“Every single year it takes my breath away,” said Tricia Dyck, collections and programming manager for the Manitoba Agricultural Museum.

“It’s so still and beautiful and just this kind of holiday magic in the middle of a rural setting.”

Dyck and her team at the museum have a tradition of hanging Christmas lights on 25 of the buildings that make up their Homesteader’s Village.

During this month, patrons can walk through the lit-up heritage sites, take a horse-drawn sleigh ride, and see century-old machines glistening under festive lighting. Dyck said it’s a special opportunity to welcome visitors this time of year.

“In the winter, it’s hard to get people out at museums, especially in a rural setting where a lot of our exhibits are open air,” Dyck said.

“Having this opportunity with the sleigh rides and refreshments and hot chocolate, it does bring out the crowds.”

She said there is a special enjoyment in the wintertime from having people bring in Percheron and Clydesdale horses to run the sleigh rides. It’s a community tradition that helps keep the spirit of the museum alive for generations.

“Here at the museum, people bring their families, their grandchildren, and they keep coming back because they just want to keep that beauty of the museum alive,” Dyck said.

The museum runs their Winter Wonderland event through the first two weekends in December and then featured a drive-through version of the event the weekend after.

Skater’s paradise in Brandon

It’s not just people in Austin stringing up lights. Driving down 18th Street in Brandon, thousands of Christmas lights are seen not far from the Assiniboine River in the valley.

An area that houses baseball diamonds in the summer is transformed into a skater’s paradise where the City of Brandon’s annual waterfall of lights display shines next to the ice.

“We’re really looking forward to the Christmas break, because we’re going to see hundreds and hundreds of people out here,” said Kent Bednorski, chargehand with the City of Brandon Parks Department.

“Generally, by mid-October we are in full-on Christmas mode, repairing all these decorations, re-stringing trees and stuff.”

Bednorski and a crew of seven others work on displaying thousands of Christmas lights with various light displays of people, animals and places that pay homage to Manitoba and Westman.

By mid-November they are out flooding the skating rink daily. He said he had ambition this year, creating a rink three to four times bigger than last year’s size.

“My favourite part of my job is building this facility,” Bednorski said.

“We’re all very passionate about this area in the wintertime. I bit the bullet, and we made it happen.”

The public skating oval opened on Dec. 19 to the public and is now open daily for the winter season.