Katoomba Street is dressed in her Christmas best, thanks to local primary school students, the KGB (Katoomba Garden Brigade), the Chamber of Commerce and Random Acts of Knitting and Love.
The pupils from Katoomba, Katoomba North, St Canice’s and the Yellow Deli home school have decorated 320 cardboard stars, undercoated and lacquered by chamber volunteers.
They have been hung on street trees and staked in the garden beds, along with Christmas baubles. The art directors for the project were Gary Godkin (who came up with the idea) and Lui Friscioni.
Adding to the festive cheer are the outfits on the light poles.
The project is a preview of an event that Lynne Curan, from Omnia, is trying to create. She hopes an annual Fibres in the Mist festival will engage people to look at their environment and at the same time bring colour to the streetscape by dressing inanimate objects in bright “clothes”.
Some of the poles are wearing tutus, others feature koalas and gum leaves, many have had to be stitched on while others are buttoned on.
The result, along with the year-long horticultural efforts of the KGB, is a feast of festive cheer the length of Katoomba Street.
After the stars were hung last week, the schoolchildren swarmed the street, looking for their own creations and posing for photographs.
Mark Geerligs, principal of St Canice’s, said his students love to be active in the community.
“We hope that the stars on Katoomba Street will lead everyone to the true meaning of Christmas,” he said.
Yazmina-Michele de Gaye, who described herself as the “Crochet Goddess”, had come from Mullumbimby to help decorate.
A friend of Ms Curan’s, she said she was delighted to help bring cheer to the town, which she hadn’t visited since the 1970s.
The star project will be officially “unveiled” on Thursday at 6pm in Carrington Place and Katoomba Street with the school children, choir and orchestra.
Meanwhile, in Blackheath, a giant Christmas tree has been “planted” on the first floor balcony of the New Ivanhoe Hotel, courtesy of the Rhododendron Festival Committee.
The committee has also funded LED lights for shop-owners to decorate their windows. Already at least a dozen shops have put them up, creating a twinkling wonderland at night.
Some of the poles are wearing tutus.