RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

As the hol­i­day sea­son ap­proach­es, a heart­warm­ing dis­play of Christ­mas cheer draws crowds na­tion­wide to the stun­ning­ly adorned res­i­dence of San Fer­nan­do busi­ness­man Si­mon Alexan­der at Gulf View, La Ro­main.

Renowned for his phil­an­thropy and ded­i­ca­tion to sup­port­ing his em­ploy­ees, Alexan­der has ex­tend­ed his gen­eros­i­ty by open­ing his home at Pen­ny Av­enue to the pub­lic, of­fer­ing a mes­meris­ing glimpse in­to a fes­tive won­der­land.

The ini­tia­tive, spear­head­ed by his wife, Sher­ry Alexan­der, for the last five years, has be­come a cher­ished tra­di­tion em­braced by the com­mu­ni­ty. 

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, Dr Adri­an Alexan­der, Si­mon’s son, high­light­ed the lat­est ad­di­tion to this spec­ta­cle, men­tion­ing the in­clu­sion of beloved car­toon char­ac­ters adored by chil­dren.

He said his moth­er adored chil­dren and de­spite all the neg­a­tiv­i­ty in T&T, they were ea­ger to spread Christ­mas cheer.

“We at Al­lied Home Cen­tre and Al­lied Fam­i­ly Care are about our com­mu­ni­ty. We change the theme every year and this year it’s a mag­i­cal car­toon char­ac­ter theme. This year we added ad­di­tion­al lights and we plan to con­tin­ue this and do dif­fer­ent themes,” he said.

Dr Alexan­der said his Christ­mas wish was to have hap­pi­ness for all in T&T, es­pe­cial­ly chil­dren.

Mean­while, scores of peo­ple gath­ered to bask in the hol­i­day spir­it.

Sha­bana Mo­han of Pe­nal said, “We’ve been hear­ing about this house and we de­cid­ed to take a dri­ve and see it. It’s so pret­ty and ab­solute­ly amaz­ing. We get the feel of Christ­mas when we come here.”

Al­li­son Haynes from Cou­va said it was the first time she vis­it­ed the house. “This has me in awe. It’s fun to come here,” she said.

Sev­er­al mi­grants who vis­it­ed al­so ex­pressed feel­ing the hap­pi­ness of the sea­son as they rev­elled in the en­chant­i­ng am­bi­ence cre­at­ed by the Alexan­ders.