The reindeer head sits at the front of the van during Christmas. Photos: Supplied.
Dapto’s Danny McDonogh has turned his van into a festive Christmas experience, offering tours of the Illawarra’s best light displays along with Christmas karaoke.
The 54-year-old, who runs the business “Dan With A Van,” had already decked out his vehicle with party lights, a smoke machine, and karaoke equipment as a way to make time pass faster for passengers.
However, at Christmas, he steps it up a notch.
Danny, who started out in 2019 as an Uber driver before transitioning into being a point-to-point transportation business, has found a creative way to combine his love of Christmas with his driving services.
Customers can hop aboard his pimped ride and sing along to Christmas tunes as they’re driven to see light displays in suburbs such as Lake Heights, Albion Park, and Stream Hill.
“I used to work in international logistics but my wife got ill, and I have a son who’s got autism, and we ended up on a disability support pension,” he said.
“Then Uber came along, and that was an opportunity to make a few extra dollars to help us get by.”
Having a car that was more than 10 years old, he had to decide whether he would continue as an Uber driver.
“I saw the van, which I bought, and said, ‘We can make something of this,’” he said.
Danny began to step back from Uber due to what was often late weekend hours, preferring to spend more time with his young family by instead focusing on airport and cruise connections as a point-to-point transportation business.
“That’s probably 90 per cent of what I do these days,” he said.
“I slowly fell into it from basically a pensioner just trying to make ends meet, and it’s gone from one thing to the next.”
It was being a “very creative sort of person” that led to the transformation of the van, adding a wooden floor for easier clean-ups, replacing the existing table in the middle and adding an Esky for drinks, putting in limousine-style seating to allow people to converse more easily and adding flashing party lights.
“I’m on the spectrum, so I can’t do things normally like other people do,” he said.
“It’s got a smoke machine in there if people want to have a smoke machine, because there’s a wall that divides the front section from the back section so they can do the full Back to the Future.
“I ask people, ‘Do you want to do a Back to the Future arrival?’, and we put the smoke machine on and then open the doors, and all the smoke pours out.
“There’s a couple of microphones there, so they can sing along to whatever they want to play. It’s a lot of fun.
“If you’re going to be in a car for an hour or two hours, it goes faster if you’re talking to people, or if you’re singing, or if you’re having a bit of fun.”
He said the idea for the Christmas lights tours and additional decorations started after viewing Illawarra’s lights as a family.
Danny is in his fifth year doing the Christmas lights, with the first year attracting nine bookings, while this year he’s already booked in five tours.
“I usually go out with my daughter and we scout around to look at what’s out there,” he said.
He said due to time, they tended to focus on the lights in Lake Heights, Albion Park, and Stream Hill.
“There’s a really nice street at Stream Hill, where they actually have the lights go out over the footpath,” he said.
“I usually suggest people get out and do the walk, because it’s absolutely beautiful.”
Having previously been a youth pastor, he said he loved all things Christmas and sharing the season with other people.
“It’s a time to be generous and I think people are kinder to one another at Christmas. I think that the world’s a nicer place,” he said.
“I do enjoy the celebration and enjoy celebrating it with other people. It’s an opportunity just to get out and meet new people and have a great time.”
He said at Christmas his customers included young families, grandparents with their grandkids, and even 20-somethings.
“There’s people from all different walks of life that you get to spend time with and you get to have conversations with,” he said.
And if anyone shies away from singing, he’s happy to start belting out a tune to get it rolling.
“Sometimes you’ve got to give people a bit of help along,” he said, laughing.
While Christmas lights are his main festive gig each year, he has dressed the van up for Halloween, St Patrick’s Day and Australia Day.
However, for Christmas there was one special addition.
“It’s got a deer’s head hanging out the front,” he said.
“That’s because in my first 12 months I hit a deer at Kembla Grange, so I always make sure I put a deer there.
“He nearly put me out of business.”
Learn more about Dan With A Van.
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