After sunset, when they’re switched on, Zakkas likes to sit on the porch, next to the giant Santa statue in the doorway, playing old-time carols and chatting to passersby.

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Eleni and Ilias, also known as Louie, migrated separately from northern Greece in the 1960s, and for 30 years until they retired in 2000 ran a milk bar in Wingrove Street, Alphington, in Melbourne’s north-east – next to the butcher shop owned by Eleni’s uncle, Bill Tsigos.

The couple and their children, Dina and Steve, lived in a home behind the shop. There was no room for a garden, let alone a fabulous Christmas lights display.

They worked 14 hours a day, all year. On Christmas Day, the shop would close from 2pm.

Now living in this quiet pocket of Ivanhoe facing the Hurstbridge railway line, a different part of the suburb to the Boulevard Christmas lights, the couple tend 70 rose bushes and the vegie garden of their dreams.

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And Zakkas can keep adding to her Christmas lights.

Her daughter, Dina, says: “Wherever she can find a spare space, a window or a brick wall, something pops up on it.” However, “it brings her a lot of joy”.

“And she loves that it brings other people joy, so she feels she’s giving something to the family and community.”

Zakkas, who has three grandchildren, says her neighbours are supportive: one gave her a voucher to buy more lights, and one gave cash towards her power bill.

Onlookers have given her chocolates. “They say, ‘we had a wonderful time, we wait to see the lights, thank you so much’.”

Eleni’s daughter-in-law, Matina Zakkas, said: “She looks forward to it more than anything, and it brings her more joy than anything else.”

One admirer of the lights emailed The Age saying Zakkas “does an amazing display of Christmas lights every year all by herself” and “asks nothing in return”.

“We need more community people like her and need to promote and celebrate them,” the correspondent said.