People carrying ladders has been a common sight the last week as area residents begin the home decorating process in earnest.
From downtown Rock Creek, to West Avenue in Ashtabula to Sleepy Hollow in Plymouth Township homes are being turned into lively advertisements for the holiday season.
Some choose to decorate their lawns with religious displays complete with the Baby Jesus while others enjoy inflatable snow scenes.
“We have been doing extremely well ... the lights have been absolutely flying out of here,” said Ben Hecht, a customer service associate at Lowe’s in Ashtabula Township.
“The LED lights were extremely hot,” Hecht said. He said yard inflatables also sold really well along with clips used to hang lights outside.
“Red and green floodlights have been a hit,” Hecht said.
Shirley and George Louma have been decorating their Plymouth Township home in the Sleepy Hollow development for about 17 years and are putting their efforts into one last lighting bonanza.
“We’re still trying to get it ready. This is going to be our last year,” Shirley Louma said of ending their labor of love.
“We just love Christmas,” she said of the reason for spending so much time putting up Christmas decorations and lights throughout their property on Knickerbocker Circle.
Shirley Louma didn’t know how much money they have spent, but realizes it has been a lot. She said it also takes a lot of storage space to put their collection away after each holiday season.
For the last several years the couple has partnered with area businesses and civic organizations and churches to help raise money to help the social service agency HALO that helps those in need during the holiday season.
“We’ll have the cram the van on the second weekend in December,” she said of the event that has people bring items to the house when they come by to take a look at the lights.
The lighting process is a family event.
“The first week in November we have our annual lockup with the kids and grand kids,” she said of the kick off to the four week process that sees lights turned on around Thanksgiving.
“After Christmas we will be selling off a large majority of the (decorations),” she said.
While some people put up a lot of decorations others just try to bring a little holiday cheer to their neighborhood.
Bob Mead was out brightening up his area of the world along Route 45 in Saybrook Township Saturday afternoon. He said a back injury hindered his work last year, but all the decorations are ready to go.
“Thanksgiving is over. Now it is time to put up the lights,” said Todd Tulino while stringing lights at his home on 13th Street in Ashtabula.
He said he tries to bring a bit of cheer to the area but doesn’t go crazy.
“Just enough to make the wife and kids happy,” he said.
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