A holiday array of lights

How do they do it? Every Christmas season finds pretty lights and yard decorations around town and in the country. This year we did interviews with three families who year after year put in the time and work to decorate for the season.

The first family we talked to was Del and Veronica Schoenfish on the east edge of Cambridge who put lights around the garage, house, trees and most recently have lined the driveway with lighted candy canes. Del said he has been doing this for over 20 years and is never sure if he is going to do it again. He says, “I’m getting too old for this, but we enjoy the comments we get and the people who drive out.”

Del and Veronica start the day after Thanksgiving, putting up 2-3 different areas at a time. “What used to take us one week, now takes at least two weeks.” They leave the lights up until Epiphany on January 6, which is 12 days after Christmas when the three Magi presented gifts to Baby Jesus. “It is a celebration of Jesus’ birth, and that’s really why we do it,” stated Del.

They take everything down and put it all away. One year they left the lights on the garage, but they didn’t fare very well during a hail storm. They had to replace about 90 percent of those.

Del said, “Some people with kids drive into the yard, and others ask if they can,” tell anyone, but they usually give out candy canes if they’re home).

Next we talked to Elvin and Vicky Wallgren who live on the west side of Holbrook. Elvin said, “Wherever we have lived, we’ve put up lights, but when we moved here, and it was on the highway, more people get to see them and that’s a big incentive to keep doing it.”

Elvin said that he had knee replacement surgery, and told his wife he wasn’t going to put up the lights. But people kept asking if he was going to - so he did it another year. Vicky said, “Every year he says he’s not going to climb on the roof, but he still does it.”

“My satisfaction is people coming by to look at the lights. A lot of people don’t have much extra money and I can give them this.” He added, “I grew up in the 40’s and we didn’t have much. Times were hard. I enjoy doing it for everybody.”

He uses a lot of gutter hooks, screws, small electrical staples, and wire to keep everything straight and facing the right direction. “I guess I’m pretty particular, and it takes a lot of time to get it just right.” His lights outline all of the buildings, as well as the fence. This year he put up 166 sets of lights, and said he typically spends about $100 in new lights every year. He tries to have them all up and ready to turn on the day after Thanksgiving, and turns them off on New Years Day. He takes them all down every year and stores them in totes.

Elvin and Vicky said they enjoy living in Holbrook and are glad to see more people putting out lights every year for the holidays. They have two grown daughters and are looking forward to Christmas with the grandchildren.

Our final interview was with Mitch and Jessica Braun, also in Holbrook. They live on Swayze Street and have their house, yard, trees, fence, bushes and several vehicles decorated for the Christmas season. They started putting out Christmas lights in their first home in Montana and have just kept adding to it every year. The Brauns moved to Holbrook in 2014 and with their abundance of lights and character cut-outs, have drawn people to drive through our small town just to enjoy the sight.

Mitch said, “People drive by real slow, one family even stopped and said they give a box of candy to the best display, and gave us the box. It was great.”

Their first lighted character display was a hunter they cut out of particle board and put lights around it. But the particle board did not weather very well and fell apart. Now they only use a good quality plywood.

“One of the best things about doing this is the interaction I get from everyone. People at the local cafe, or anywhere, stop me and visit about it. I’ve talked to people that I might not have even met otherwise,” said Mitch.

Mitch does all of the lights with the help of his 10-year-old daughter Juno who is in charge of making sure each string of lights is in working order. Jessica is in charge of making the character cut-outs. They have a movie theme for their characters, including How the Grinch Stole Christmas, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Despicable Me, and The Lorax. Their 15-year-old daughter Haylie is in charge of helping get everything out of the attic each year, as well as the Merry Christmas lights on the back fence. The girls tell me, “Everybody at school knows where we live.”

They start in September, putting up lights and work through every weekend to get it all done by Thanksgiving. Mitch said, “We have everything up by Thanksgiving and don’t add any more. It’s a lot of work, but we enjoy doing it. It’s a family project.” Mitch says that they take everything down as he too found that it doesn’t weather very well here in Nebraska with wind and hail. He has had to add lots of outside electrical outlets, both around the house and in the soffits of the house. Mitch is a carpenter by trade so is able to do most things himself, and Jessica is an artist by trade, so the characters are fun and keep her challenged to come up with new ones.

They have bought a lot of extension cords over the years for the strings of lights as well as the character spot lights, but most of the other Christmas decorations have been purchased at yard sales or auctions. “Sometimes people just drop off stuff in our yard, even old paint, which we can use for the cut-outs,” Jessica stated.

“We like to see more people putting up lights and decorating for the holiday,” said Mitch. “All of it together adds to the enjoyment of the season.”

If you are unable to actually drive to Holbrook, you can find pictures on facebook at artbyjessicabraun.

Have a Very Merry Christmas everyone - and take a drive to see all of the Christmas lights in our area.