No holiday Grinches allowed

St. Catharines street event, with lights, music and movies, to help support Gillian’s Place

There might be a Grinch in the family, but nobody is stealing Christmas this year.

Rita Carrey has always done her best, as part of her yearly charity tradition, to ensure no one is alone or left behind during the holiday season.

This time Carrey is doing that alongside her cul-de-sac neighbours, bringing Christmas on the Terrace to Niagara’s seasonal calendar.

It’ll be the first, and Carrey hopes, an annual, neighbourhood event.

Family and friends are invited to gather together on Heathcote Terrace in St. Catharines among brightly lit and decorated houses and yards. There will be coffee and hot chocolate, raffle prizes, games, a local deejay playing holiday music and a fire truck for children to explore.

All proceeds and donations will be in support of Gillian’s Place, which provides safe refuge and support programs to end domestic violence.

“It seems so fitting at this time of year,” said Carrey. “It’s hard for a mother and children to leave a situation … because you’re afraid and you have nowhere to go to, so I just want to make their Christmas a little bit nicer if I can.”

When Carrey and her husband, Alex, moved onto her street about 10 years ago, there were no decorations, no houses lit with holiday lights. But they chose to display their spirit because of her love for the Christmas season.

Not only because her brother, actor and comedian Jim Carrey, played the title role in “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Or because she owns a year-round Christmas store in Niagara Falls, It’s Always Christmas. But because it brings back happy childhood memories and she wants to share those feelings with others.

“My parents were huge Christmas freaks, so I completely blame them. My mom would tie sleigh bells to our bed when we were really little so every time we rolled over it would ring. They were just incredibly, amazing people.

“My dad was funnier than my brother. He loved to make people happy and make people laugh and that’s my whole entire family.”

Each year since moving to the cul de sac, more and more neighbours have decorated their houses for the season, and the response has “taken off.” When one neighbour suggested a community event, a simple idea of hot chocolate and music “steamrolled from there,” said Carrey.

“If we’re going to do that, why don’t we do a charity function where we actually do something good for somebody,” she said. “One of the neighbours is setting up a screen outside playing Christmas movies, we’re setting up chairs … anybody can come.”

Neighbours Steven and Kay Nicol, owners of Beamsville Fish and Chips, are just a few of the “wonderful people” Carrey said have been instrumental in organizing the event, and who “live Christmas in their hearts.” Another neighbour, a city firefighter, is arranging for the fire truck.

It’s a neighbourhood-filled collaboration.

“I just hope this fundraiser makes a difference for Gillian’s Place,” Carrey said.

Raffle tickets are $20 for an arm’s length. Donated prizes include an Apple iPad, Air Canada gift certificates, Godiva chocolates, IceDogs hockey tickets, music lessons and much more.

Admission is free, but people are encouraged to bring unwrapped children’s presents and non-perishable food donations.

Christmas on the Terrace will be held Saturday, Dec. 10, at 5 p.m. at 1 Heathcote Terrace.