By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
NORTHFIELD — Christmas may be just days away, but for those who go all in on decorating their houses, it’s all systems go once the pumpkin pie is eaten on Thanksgiving Day.
While Black Friday is known as the kickoff to holiday shopping, it’s also the day many people begin putting up their decorations around the region.
Displays range from religious to secular, traditional to trendy and understated to over-the-top.
Guy Wineland, of 5 Ridgewood Drive in Northfield, likes to cover most of the bases with his display of white lights running in rows up and down his lawn and outlining his split-level home. He said he has been decorating for Christmas since he was a little kid when he would help his mother.
“My mom would go out there every day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday was the day we decorated for Christmas. We would decorate the whole house that weekend, inside and out,” Wineland said, noting that they always kept to a rigid schedule.
“There is no jumping to Thanksgiving until after Halloween” and then onto Christmas, the 45-year-old said.
Wineland, who has two children — a seventh-grader at Northfield Community School and a junior at Mainland Regional High School (cross-country all-star Linden Wineland) — he does all of the work himself.
“I’m pretty much solo out there doing it,” he said, noting it takes about 24 hours in all to put everything up.
To be fair, he said, his daughter does help in her own way.
“My daughter is the biggest boss ever, she’s like the superintendent,” he said.
Wineland said his display is so complex that he has a system. He details his décor on paper so he knows the next year exactly how to put everything up.
“I’ve gotten wiser over the years,” he said. “I’ve been getting better and better every year hour-wise. It used to take six days of nonstop doing. Now I have gotten it down to doing it on the weekend. I have it perfectly marked how everything goes in, the spacing on the lawn and the lights, how many you need. There’s a little math involved and preparation.”
He said it’s part of his personal tradition and that he genuinely likes bringing joy to others.
“I enjoy getting outside; I put Christmas music on and zone out and peacefully put Christmas lights up,” he said. “I like seeing people happy and it’s the one time of the year when people are a little bit nicer to each other. If they feel down or something they drive by my house and smile. To bring joy to somebody’s face is basically it,” Wineland said.
He has been decorating his own home since 2004 and keeps “adding on, year after year. It just keeps snowballing every year.”
This year he added a runway leading to the chimney outlined in blue lights so that Santa can’t miss it.
Wineland’s display also is decidedly religious, as he has a “Keep Christ in Christmas” sign in the yard. He said he and his wife, Lisa, as well as son and daughter, Lily, are members of St. Gianna Beretta Molla Parish in Northfield.
“Church is a big thing, the meaning of starting over,” Wineland said. “It’s the joy of the season, the start of the church season — it starts with the birth of Christ and climaxes at Easter with the death.”
Joe DeRosa of 101 Jackson Ave. has an extensive display that wraps around the corner of his porch and on the ground. His décor leans more toward the traditional, with plenty of multicolored lights, reindeer, snowmen, wrapped packages and oversized ornaments. He said he particularly likes blow molds and older items.
DeRosa said he has lived in the century-old home for 17 years and decorates every year with the help of his daughter and partner, taking about two weeks to do so starting in mid-November.
“I put the time and effort into it because I love it and the neighborhood loves it,” he said, noting that neighbors walking by always inquire whether he will be decorating again.
DeRosa keeps adding to his display.
“I pick up more things, one item every year, and hopefully I have enough storage for everything,” he said. “I enjoy doing it and add something to it every year.”
He feels Christmas is a special time of year and likes to celebrate by making it beautiful.
“It’s nostalgic, it just makes you feel good. It makes you feel happy, and as things are with COVID, rather than getting all negative and saying the heck with this and the heck with that, people enjoy it and I enjoy it,” he said. “I probably sit out here more often and look at it while everyone else is in a rush trying to get from point A to point B shopping.”
While DeRosa’s display is mostly secular, he has a lighted manger season prominently displayed in one corner.
“You have the traditional and you have the religious part, so I cover both ends,” DeRosa said.
Next door, Frank Simpson and his wife, Sue, of 105 Jackson Ave., have a fantastic display of lights including icicles hanging from the eaves of both floors, bushes and a pole tree, as well as a lighted manger season.
“I’m still not done yet, I just put up those strip lights yesterday,” Simpson said Thursday, Dec. 3.
He said he has been decorating since he was 14 years old and lived a couple of houses away on the corner of Jackson and Fuae avenues, where he grew up. Simpson married the girl from a couple of doors down and now lives next door to his daughter and grandchildren.
“It’s my hobby. My wife starts buying stuff in July,” Simpson said, adding that he doesn’t know how much money he has spent over the years — “I don’t want to know.”
He said he starts even earlier than Wineland or DeRosa, getting up on the roof Nov. 1 every year while it’s still warm outside.
“I don’t want to be out there when it’s cold,” he said.
Simpson said he has bells out front that have a motion detector and chime when someone gets close.
“I heard them go off and I looked and there was some guy out there with his son taking pictures of him,” Simpson said. “I’ve got people that walk around here all the time, I see them every day walking by commenting on it that they love it and can’t wait to see it.”
Terri Gladden and her fiancé, Kirk Ludwig, have been decorating their home, just off the bike path at 113 Davis Ave., for about 13 years.
She said they started out with a reindeer and now have every inch of the home, including the roof, decorated with lights.
“It’s because he’s obsessed,” Gladden said of Ludwig.
There also is an extensive yard display worth seeing day or night, including light-up reindeer, the Island of Misfit Toys from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” which is new this year, several trees and, of course, Santa and Mrs. Claus hanging out on the porch.
“Christmas is the best time of year and there are a lot of people who come and see it and enjoy it,” Gladden said.
Ludwig spends weekends putting up the display, starting the roof in September while the weather is still decent, and then “after Halloween is when he starts putting stuff out front,” Gladden said. “If he did it consistently it probably would take about a week to get everything done.”
The display is roped off with garland to keep people from wandering through the yard, she said. Even the driveway is decorated with a curved, lighted trellis.
“As he is setting up people are commenting and getting excited for it,” Gladden said, saying that it’s part of their Christmas experience as well.
Ludwig said he started out with a little bit and grew from there.
“I try to add a little bit of decorations every year; this year all of the Rudolph collection is new,” he said. “I think I need a bigger yard.”
John and Jen Santori, who have lived at 22009 Grove Road for 17 years, have a large display of lights and inflatables. He said he starts just after Halloween and spends seven to eight eight-hour days putting up the display.
“I enjoy doing it. Little kids when they walk by they love it. It’s fun. “Cars slow down and look at it,” Santori said, adding that it’s a secular display rather than religious.
“It’s just the time of year to do it,” he said.
The Santoris have two children, a 12-year-old at NCS and a freshman at MRHS, who used to love helping but not so much anymore.
“They used to love it. They like to come out and look at it but they don’t so much want to help me as much as they used to,” he said.
Like Wineland’s daughter, Jen Santori likes to give directions.
“My wife does the inside and she comes out and says, ‘Nope, nope, nope. You have to put this over there and that over there,’” Santori said.
He said his favorite part is the lighted archway over the driveway.
“That was something new last year. This year instead of wrapping the poles I put mesh over it to get a little brighter,” Santori said.