Winnipeg Christmas Map a labour of love for merry community of holiday cheer-seekers
A digital map outlining the best and brightest Christmas lights Winnipeg has to offer is illuminating the sheer volume of Yuletide displays throughout the city.
Carol Cassell is the merry mastermind behind the online project.
She originally launched the map six years ago when she moved to Transcona, but it was originally dedicated to an entirely different holiday.
“It was for Halloween decorations,” Cassell told CTV News Winnipeg. “But after that first year, a lot of people started asking if there would be a Christmas map.”
The next year she did just that, mapping all the Christmas lights displays in Transcona. It continued on as an annual tradition.
“That’s how the map started. It was just me for the first five years, going out and looking for houses,” Cassell recalled.
Then the pandemic hit in 2020.
Cassell decided it was the perfect time to expand the map to the entire city of Winnipeg.
A Meadows-area home is listed on the Winnipeg Christmas Map as one of the most decorated homes in the city. (Source: Google Maps/Winnipeg Christmas Map 2021)
“Especially with last year with the lockdown and not being able to visit people, I think more people were going out to look at Christmas lights, and people who hadn’t done it before or done it since they were children were rediscovering how enjoyable it is,” she said. “It was a big hit.”
How big a hit? The Facebook group devoted to the original Transcona map ballooned from about 500 members to 26,000 after it expanded its reach to the whole city.
“I was shocked,” she said. “I had a thousand people joining every day for almost a month.”
With the expansion of the map, so too did its construction. Cassell still devoted free nights to driving around, looking for lights, but she also added a submission page where folks could send in their own addresses, photos and descriptions.
She now devotes about 10 hours a week to searching out displays and entering the bevvy of new submissions into the map.
This Charleswood home included in the Winnipeg Christmas Map is listed among the most decorated homes in the city. According to the map, everything in the display is handmade and has been in the works for over 20 years, stretching onto the neighbour’s yard. (Source: Google Maps/Winnipeg Christmas Map 2021)
Another upgrade—the map is organized using a legend so Christmas lights-seekers know exactly what attraction they’re hitting the road for. Gold stars represent the most decorated homes in and around the city, lights denote homes with light shows set to music, Santa hats mark very moderately decorated homes and bells represent other holiday attractions.
When asked if she has favourites, Cassell could name two—a Seuss-inspired display of Whoville on Devonshire Drive West, and an Island Lakes display with an array of mechanical features, including a miniature train that loops around the whole yard.
“It’s pretty magical,” she said. “I didn’t know that there were so many homes with such elaborate and beautiful displays. So much work goes into them, these displays.”
Cassell plans to take new submissions on the map until the week before Christmas.
While it’s a lot of work, Cassell said the best gift is the feedback she gets from fellow Christmas lights lovers.
“People who have been using the map have been really positive about it,” she said. “They take their families out. They go out on dates with their partners. They go out with their friends, and they’re just having a positive experience.”
The Winnipeg Christmas Map can be found here.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
BREAKING New York appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction from landmark #MeToo trial
New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
Residents of northern Alberta First Nation told to shelter in place
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
Monthly earnings rise, payroll employment falls: jobs report
The number of vacant jobs in Canada increased in February, while monthly payroll employment decreased in food services, manufacturing, and retail trade, among other sectors.
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Metro Vancouver mayors call for serial killer Robert Pickton to be denied parole
A dozen mayors from around Metro Vancouver say federal Attorney General and Justice Minister Arif Virani should deny parole for notorious B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton, and reassess the parole and sentencing system for 'prolific offenders and mass murderers.'