Dumbledore Santa greets Ballard muggles, as 'Diagon Alley' dad adds-on to Harry Potter decor

SEATTLE -- It was a wizarding weekend in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood Saturday and Sunday. What started as quite possibly the best-decorated driveway for Halloween may have also turned into the best Santa meet-and-greet as well.

Diagon Alley started out as a little Harry Potter themed Halloween decor for Jonathan Chamber's two girls. Now it's drawing thousands of visitors to his driveway and bringing in thousands of dollars to help fight pancreatic cancer.

Diagon Alley is now decked out for the holidays and is still free to muggles. But the project is now collecting voluntary donations to Purple Stride, in association with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, in honor of close family friend Matt Bencke.

Bencke lost his battle with pancreatic cancer just before Halloween.

"My daughters--they were confused and didn't understand why he had to pass away so quickly and why his kids lost their father," described Chamber's who said Bencke used to work with his wife. "So we decided to put out a bucket in his name to raise money for the cause."

Sunday hundreds of visitors lined Chamber's driveway and around the block of their Ballard home to catch a glimpse of 'Dumbledore Santa' this weekend.

As of November 29, an estimated 9,000 visitors had donated nearly $9,000.

"It's obviously grown to be more than that," said Chambers. "Seeing the reaction from the world,  social media went viral. We had to put together another event. We had to take advantage of this opportunity for a good cause."

Chambers is a Seattle tech worker and former Creative Director who quit his job to build the alley.

He is still pretty shocked by the popularity of his homemade front yard decor that's gained worldwide attention.

Aside from hands-on help from neighbors, an artist from Los Angeles even drove to Seattle to contribute add-ons like paper mache dragons.

Dumbledore Santa joined the fun, along with Professor Severus Snape and about thirty other Potter favorites just for the weekend.

Diagon Alley will still be decorated for Christmas and open to the public until it's all taken down in January.

The new Leaky Cauldron and Gringotts Bank play structures will be auctioned off at Whittier Elementary, in April, benefiting the Whittier PTA.

The original alley fronts built before Halloween will be moved to a new home at Camp Korey in Mount Vernon. According to their website, Camp Korey is a free camp for kids and families living with serious medical conditions in Skagit County.

As for his next undertaking. Chambers would like to tackle 'Star Wars', but says that still has yet to be finalized by his wife -- not to mention his neighbors.