For 10 years, Granny's Christmas Grotto in the Rangitīkei town of Marton has brought festive joy to thousands of visitors.
After it closes its doors this year everything will be auctioned off, as the woman behind it all retires because of the effects of a brain tumour.
Jenny 'Granny' Greener says she is not going anywhere for a while, but it would be unfair to leave it to her family to go through her Christmas collection when she dies.
The grotto is housed in a commercial building Greener's husband Ross bought, but she had previously rented space for the festive season.
Greener could not say how many items she has, but some numbers give a clue. The displays occupy almost 4000 square metres of space. She has more than 300 festive trains, and more than 70 Christmas trees six-feet (1.83m) tall or above.
Visitors are greeted by a nativity scene before moving through a series of displays, such as trees covered in snow, red-themed decorations, Christmas villages and a Kiwiana collection containing the most-photographed tree in the grotto - one covered in 440ml Tui beer cans.
Jenny Greener will auction off her Christmas collection after this year's public display. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
Greener recalled her love of Christmas developing as a child. It was a magical time thanks to her magician grandfather Bert South, who would perform sleight-of-hand tricks such as turning pennies into half crowns.
"We could never understand why Pop wasn't the richest man in the world," Greener said.
Her collection really started 32 years ago when she was a manager at a K-Mart store and it started selling decorations not seen in New Zealand before.
Down the years her display grew at home, before she opened it to the public a decade ago.
She was retired now, but all her earnings from her last 10 years working at a supermarket went into buying Christmas-themed items.
Greener says she has more than 300 Christmas-themed trains. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
There was a small charge to get in the grotto. The money went towards keeping the place running, which did not come cheap. For a start, there were the 500 batteries needed every December.
"It's a bit sad really to think it's going to go," she said. "It would be nice if somebody had the money to come along and buy the entire collection and show it somewhere else, even if they changed the name.
"But I'm actually also okay with that fact that a little bit of the grotto will live on everywhere."
It was too early to say when the auction would take place, and Greener knew it would be an emotional time.
The Tui tree is the most photographed in the grotto. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
Its doors close on 23 December, but there might be the occasional private booking in January.
Her health was behind the move to close. Greener, 71, had a brain tumour.
"I've made the decision because my health isn't good and I think it's the right and responsible thing to do, for me to deal with it rather than leaving it to my husband and children to deal with it," she said.
A nativity scene greets visitors to the grotto. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
"None of them are particularly Christmas-orientated. My husband and three sons are all bordering on grinches, but I love them to bits."
Next Christmas, Greener planned to view other festive displays - something she could not do because of her commitment to the grotto.
Home would largely be a Christmas-free zone, apart from some seasonal figurines by artist Jim Shore, which were displayed throughout the grotto, she said.
And she would only keep what she could display, so nothing would be packed away.
About 2000 people a year went through the grotto during public open times and special tours.
In its first four days this year about 375 people visited, in a busy start for Greener and her volunteer helpers.
