A Chilliwack couple has given thousands of dollars and thousands of non-perishable food items to the Chilliwack Salvation Army after they welcomed the public to see their Harry Potter-themed Christmas house by donation for one weekend.
Katharine and Johnathan Wall invited folks to step inside their Chilliwack home from Dec. 20 to Dec. 22 where they transformed it into a scene straight out of a Harry Potter movie. Their living room was the Gryffindor common room complete with a Christmas tree and presents, and their dining room was the Hogwarts banquet room.
The cost of entry was a donation to the food bank of cash or non-perishable food. Over those three days, the Walls collected a staggering $3,625 and 5,000-plus food items from the more than 2,000 Potterheads who visited.
There was so much food, the Sally Ann sent a truck to their house on Christmas Eve to collect it all. The cheque was dropped off Monday morning (Dec. 30).
READ MORE: Harry Potter Christmas house open to the public this weekend in Chilliwack
The outside was also decorated with things like a Quidditch pitch and castle, plus a façade featuring storefronts as seen in Diagon Alley.
The Walls worked on their Harry Potter-themed house all year, since January. More than 300 hours of work went into it during the 10 weeks alone leading up to Christmas.
Every year they decorate their house for both Halloween and Christmas and they use the same theme for each holiday. Their Harry Potter Halloween decorations included spiders and cobwebs.
This isn’t the first time the Walls have piggybacked their Halloween house-decorating with Christmas. Last year their theme was A Nightmare Before Christmas in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Disney movie.
READ MORE: Uniquely decorated Chilliwack home combines Halloween and Christmas
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More than 5,000 non-perishable food items were collected in three days from Katharine and Johnathan Wall’s Harry Potter-themed Christmas house. (Submitted)
Katharine and Johnathan Wall worked all year transforming their Chilliwack house – inside and out – into a scene straight out of a Harry Potter movie. (Jenna Hauck/ The Progress)
