Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

In her quest to have one of the best-dec­o­rat­ed homes in To­ba­go for the Christ­mas sea­son, Leslie Ann Bur­nette-Alexan­der spent around $5,000, trav­elled to Trinidad for lights and spent months putting it all to­geth­er at her Black Rock home.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, Bur­nette-Alexan­der said her love for lights be­gan when she vis­it­ed Grena­da, the home­land of her hus­band Court­ley Dou­glas. Bur­nette-Alexan­der said while in Grena­da in 2007, she start­ed light­ing up her home. She said the dis­play at­tract­ed vis­i­tors from far and wide on the spice is­land. When she re­turned to To­ba­go in 2015, she start­ed the tra­di­tion again.

She ex­plained that this year, she bought $3,000 worth of lights in To­ba­go and then went to Trinidad, where she bought $2,000 more worth of lights. She said many peo­ple are at­tract­ed to her home and are wel­come to take pho­tos.

“I am proud of my­self and the work I have done.”

On the cre­ative side, Bur­nette-Alexan­der re­pur­posed wa­ter bot­tles and oth­er lights to com­plete dec­o­ra­tions for her Christ­mas dis­play.