VICTORIA -- Julie and her dog, Don Pedro, don't have a regular route for their walks. "[It's] this way or that way, depending on the dog," she says.
Although they've been this way before, seeing Clarence Street so suddenly seasonal was a surprise. "It's gorgeous!" Julie smiles. "The people on this street must be lovely."
Almost every tree on the block-long street is blooming with Christmas baubles. About 30 trees along the boulevard between the sidewalk and street have hundreds of decorations hanging from their branches.
"I think it all began with one person," Paul says. He lives on the James Bay street and says that five or six years ago there was a just one tree decorated with dozens of ornaments.
"Other people picked up from there," Paul says. "It just gradually spread up and down the street."
The woman who started it all declined to comment on camera, but suggested I speak with her neighbour Mark, who’s encouraged the proliferation of decoration. "I've started to intimidate neighbours," Mark laughs. "And shame them into decorating their trees."
Mark is like a festive fertilizer, who's ultimate goal is growing community. "The most important things is I now know all the neighbours," he laughs. "Even if they do hide if I come up to them!"
Now you can't hide from the holiday spirit here. Unlike other streets with light displays best-viewed at night, Clarence Street is best visited by day. When it's sunny, the balls make the formerly bare branches sparkle and tinkle. On dull days like today the bounty of baubles make people feel bright.
"Love it! Love it!" says Julie who keeps stopping her walk with Don Pedro to gaze up at each tree they pass. "Absolutely love it."
"It helps draw people together a little bit," Paul says.
It even inspired one couple, I'm told, to reach up and spin a disco ball ornament, before exuberantly spinning each other in a daytime dance.
It's just one of the countless priceless moments – we can assume – being presented by Christmas on Clarence Street.
