Members of the Howlong Men’s Shed produced a range of Christmas decorations, mostly made from plywood, that now adorn walls along Hawkins Street.

Shed president Barry Cross said Federation Council had approached the group and provided a grant towards materials, with eight to 10 members working on the project throughout the year.

“We’re still upgrading, we did it in 2017, do it in 2018 and we hope to keep building on it,” he said.

“Previous to that there'd been no decorations at all, basically, in the shopping centre itself.”

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Some of the decorations evoke the religious Christmas story (“Nazareth to Bethlehem”) of the birth of Jesus.

“We managed to locate the figures for a nativity scene, so that became a sort of a centrepiece,” he said.

But there’s also a nod to family stories of Santa Claus.

“It’s just stuff we’ve made out of plywood and then painted – some of the faces you might have to squint a little bit to identify that it really is Santa,” Mr Cross said with a laugh. 

“There’s a lot of pine trees, little animals and also some signs.”

The men put the decorations up in early December and will leave them on display until the first Monday in January when they will be stored for next Christmas.

Mr Cross said it was a project well suited to “a men’s shed trying to do what we’re trying to do, and that’s do the best thing by the community”.

“We’ve been able to help out, we do quite a lot of ramps for people that have difficulty now getting in and out of their houses,” he said.

Making furniture or mending much-loved pieces is another regular activity.

“We’re more than happy to do that,” the president said.

“A lot of times, people go, ‘How much do we owe you?’ and we say, ‘Oh, we heard you make good sponges’, and they like that.”

Creating the Christmas decorations has been particularly satisfying.

“You know, there’s nothing better than to be stopped in the street by someone you don’t really know, and they say, ‘Oh, we just think it’s wonderful the things that the men’s shed can do,” Mr Cross said.