Family transforms home into dazzling Christmas display

A CARRICKMORE family has transformed their garden into a festive Christmas wonderland in aid of a local charity.
Every Christmas, Michael and Rosemary Loughran’s family home in Mullasin comes alive as over 10,000 LED lights illuminate and sparkle in their front garden.
With a little help from his family, Michael has spent the past two weeks decorating his garden with fairy lights, reindeers, Santa, Christmas trees and a Nativity scene to set up a unique and colourful display to envy the North Pole.
The dazzling display attracts massive attention from excited local families who are asked to make a charitable donation to the family’s chosen charity.
The big switch on took place at the weekend, and this year, the family is raising money for Starbreakers Special Olympics Club.
The club was set up in Carrickmore in 2004 and helps athletes from Carrickmore, Omagh, Beragh, Drumquin, Cookstown and the surrounding areas.
Speaking about the fundraiser, the Loughran’s said, “Starbreakers Special Olympics Club is a sports club for children and adults with an intellectual disability.
“This year, we would love to raise funds for our local charity which does so much for our community, especially for this group of young adults which have missed out on a lot of fund-raising activities due to Covid19.”
The family have been putting up the decorations for almost two decades but only started to fund-raise in 2018 and have since raised money for Cardiac Assessment Unit (CAU) in Omagh and the Dementia Unit in the Tyrone and Fermanagh Hospital.
The family have placed a donation box at the bottom of their lane for those who wish to make a donation or visit https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/michaela-loughran-2.