Christmas Decoration Felt Road South Windsor Ct
Kevin Berryman knows how to get into the Christmas spirit.
For the 47-year-old truck driver, it has to do with as many as 5,000 multicolored lights and 28 life-size and ginormous lighted inflatable characters that surround his home at 16 Eastgate Lane in Enfield.
From a 9-foot-tall Mr. Potato Head dressed as Santa to a 16-foot-long Boeing 747 piloted by Santa with elves ready to load presents, his lawn is a show-stopper for the holidays.
His Cape-style home — meticulously outlined, from the roof to the windows, with multi-hued LED lights — is the centerpiece of his display, especially when you figure in the faux pond out front, rimmed with blue lights, where a 6-foot-tall inflatable snowman is fishing.
This self-proclaimed "kid at heart" loves decorating for Christmas. It took him up to five hours on a Sunday to assemble the inflatables and at least 15 hours over several days to string the lights — and he continues to outdo himself every year.
While Berryman doesn't believe his display is over the top, he does concede he goes all out, mentioning that he even tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to persuade Walmart to sell him one of its corporate 20-foot-tall inflatable Christmas trees for his display.
Berryman is among those who love to spread holiday cheer in their neighborhoods through glittering displays, whether big or small.
Delnicki's display
In South Windsor, "spectacular," "dazzling," and "breathtaking" are some of the ways to describe the Christmas display at the home of Thomas Delnicki, the former mayor and current state representative.
His home at 130 Felt Road transforms into a full-on extravaganza of lights for the holidays, complemented by Christmas music playing on outdoor speakers — or on the radio for those viewing from their cars.
It takes Delnicki, 62, six weeks to set up the 500 pieces that make up his display, everything from an array of Santas, snowmen, Christmas trees, and igloos to flamingos in Santa suits, decorated palm trees, and a duck pond made of lights.
He uses 100,000 multicolored and clear lights and more than a mile of electrical cable for his display. The result is so over the top that he's been contacted four times to be on the ABC-TV reality show "The Great Christmas Light Fight," where people from across the nation compete to see who has the most stupendous holiday display.
Delnicki says if the show invites him again for the 2019 season, he will finally accept.
It's no wonder his display has attracted national attention. His home, whether by day or night, is so visually stunning it could make a believer out of even the biggest holiday Scrooge.
Beginning at his rooftop, the word "JOY," which is several feet tall, is illuminated in red. Santa and his reindeer are parked next to the chimney, which features a steeple Delnicki crafted out of wood and topped with lights. His house and bushes are outlined in lights, and the windows are adorned with illuminated wreaths. Every inch of his lawn depicts a holiday scene, and it's all spectacularly lit up after sundown.
"I think it really comes down to the joy and happiness that I bring to a lot of people," he says as to why he's kept up the tradition for so long.
For some families it's become a holiday ritual to visit Delnicki's display, and not a day goes by without someone complimenting him on his handiwork. One man even asked if he could propose to his girlfriend at the display. Delnicki said yes, and so did she.
He hopes everyone can just "be a kid again" when they see his display. And on Saturday, Dec. 15, he hopes they'll also want to help others when they visit. He's teamed with the local Girl Scouts to collect non-perishable food items and monetary donations from 5 to 7 p.m. at his display to help the South Windsor Food and Fuel Bank.
Indoor wonderland
In Windsor, George Saponare has been turning his two-story condominium at 234 Kenswick Lane into an enchanting Christmas wonderland for the past several years. The 76-year-old retired English teacher lets the public tour his condo in exchange for a non-perishable food item or monetary donation for a local charity, which this year is the Windsor Food and Fuel Bank. The final tours this year are from 1 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 15, and Sunday, Dec. 16.
Saponare's home showcases an impressive array of Christmas decorations he's amassed since his teens. It's sparsely decorated outside — in part due to a condo association policy — but the inside of his home is Santa's workshop come to life.
From decorative lights and themed Christmas trees to animated stuffed animals and characters such as a dancing Olaf, the snowman from the movie "Frozen," everywhere you look evokes a sense of wonder.
The bulk of the decor consists of 26 artificial Christmas trees up to 9 feet tall. Each strategically placed tree is ornately decorated with a theme in mind, such as the one adorned with butterflies, another festooned with birds, and even one celebrating Mardi Gras, embellished with beads and other trinkets.
Saponare has expertly managed to tuck decorations into every nook and cranny of his home — even his bathrooms and laundry room — a task that takes him about two months to complete, with the help of only his housekeeper.
"I enjoy having people in my house. We talk about their Christmas traditions, the way they decorate," he says. "It makes for a really wonderful season."
A display to remember
In Manchester, Frank Frallicciardi, a 79-year-old retired sales manager, has been decorating his two-story home at 150 McKee St. every Christmas for more than 40 years. And his displays have only grown more elaborate over the years.
The focal points this year are two sections of his 37-foot-long front porch. He enclosed it in Plexiglas to protect a Christmas display so expertly decorated and lit at night that the effect is reminiscent of the fanciest of store windows decorated for the holidays.
But look closer — his display comes with a message.
To the left are more than a dozen delicate figurines — Santa Clauses, ballerinas, carolers, and angels — attending a vigil to honor the victims of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. Some of the figurines hold either a tiny red candle or a pale white flower, with a ribbon attached with the name of each victim.
On the right are smiling white-bearded elves in hats, stuffed animals, Santa, and even Pinocchio hard at work building a wooden tree where each plank lists a mass shooting incident, with the star on top emblazoned with the message, "The lives to remember and pray for during the holidays."
Frallicciardi says the intent isn't to be depressing but rather to remind people to honor those whose lives have been lost.
Bringing a little joy
Before John Kupisa began decorating his own and some of the other apartment exteriors at the Park Hill apartment complex in the Broad Brook section of East Windsor, the area was "drab and dreary" around Christmastime, says John Pease, who lives there.
"Before he moved in … there were no decorations at Christmastime," Pease says. "He has improved it. It seems more like Christmas."
Kupisa is a modest man who enjoys working with his hands, which he learned from his father, with whom he used to drive around town picking up discarded Christmas trees and whittling them down to make canes.
Now, he channels his creativity into spreading holiday cheer at Park Hill, where he's lived and decorated for three years.
This year he spent two weeks adorning windows and light posts with holiday lights. For added effect, he dangled a Santa from his gutter and lined walkways with lighted candy canes. His most interesting decorations, however, are the "crystal balls" he makes out of pill cups and string lights. The do-it-yourself ornaments also happen to be his favorite pieces.
"I just like to make people happy, especially at Christmas," he says.
An inflatable community
In Ellington, driving to the end of Abbott Road where retirees Doug and Lorraine Nadeau live can make any adult feel like a child again in a larger-than-life toy store.
That's because the Nadeaus, who live at 199 Abbott Road, have a holiday display spread across their lawn that features more than 30 inflatable characters. The display begins with a giant arch lined with ornaments over their driveway, surmounted by a sign wishing visitors a merry Christmas.
Their front lawn brims with the familiar faces of the holidays: happy snowmen, waving Santas, and penguins and reindeer.
The Nadeaus have been collecting holiday inflatables for four years, spending up to $5,000 to build their collection.
"With all the stuff going on in the world, you stop and look at a display and it all goes away for a few minutes," Doug says.
Though it's been an expensive and labor-intensive hobby, he Nadeaus plan to continue the tradition for years to come. A neighbor has even offered them additional space on his adjacent lawn.
Christmas Decoration Felt Road South Windsor Ct
Source: https://www.journalinquirer.com/making-spirits-bright-dazzling-displays-spread-holiday-cheer/article_5e69f0a6-0006-11e9-806b-d7f9beacb885.html