GEORGETOWN — Bringing the community together for holiday cheer with themed decorations.
The village of Georgetown is inviting residents and businesses to celebrate the holidays by adding an inflatable Santa to their yard for the ‘Great Inflatable Christmas Trail.’
Residents are encouraged to place a 12-foot or taller inflatable Santa in their yard to celebrate the spirit of the community.
“It’s a lighthearted, joyful way to bring people together and show off our town’s Christmas spirit,” said Tammy Hodge of the Georgetown Ladies Community Club (GLCC), which is helping organize the local list.
A retired couple, David and Carol Niccum of Georgetown, have decked out their yard with an inflatable Santa, a Nativity set, as well as light shows tuned to radio stations 88.1 and 92.1 at 405 Garfield St.
“We have a big manger (for a Nativity static display), and everything goes along with that,” David Niccum said. “And on the other side of the driveway, we have deer. We have a Christmas tree that is digital. You know, lights work with the music. Then, we got a metric sign that has the words to the song, and tell them what radio stations to tune to, to hear the music.”
“It’s evolved a lot over the years,” Niccum added about the displays they have been putting up for the past 24 years, and he has been retired since 2013.
As for why the Niccum’s began decorating their yard, David said, “I can’t remember. We just like Christmas and everything.”
As for what David loves about Christmas, he said, “The birth of Jesus number one, and everything else to do with Christmas, the packages and trees, the people, and the Christmas music.”
David’s wife, Carol Niccum, loves getting into the holiday spirit and has even passed down the love to her children, grandchildren, and one great-grandchild, who is almost two.
“We used to have a train that I really liked, but we have given it to our daughter,” Carol said.
Her daughter has the train up in her yard down the street.
“She’s not quite too, and she likes the lights. She likes to stand at the front door and watch it,” she said about her grandkids enjoying their displays. “They do. They all enjoy it.”
Carol said the credit for the village getting more involved goes to the President of the Georgetown Ladies Club, Tammy Hodge.
“I am very excited that our community finally has a different spirit this year,” Carol added. “And, it’s mostly because of Tammy Hodge organizing everything. We (village of Georgetown) are doing new things that they’ve never done before.”
Many events are happening in Vermilion County and in Georgetown this weekend. Hodge has helped plan quite a few, including the Mrs. Claus workshop, which matches families in need of Christmas presents with adopters in the community. Hodge said at this time they have 117 kids to serve in the Georgetown-Ridge Farm School district.
There is also a holiday parade, which is happening on Sunday evening, with events from 2-5 p.m. preceding the parade.
“We do lots of stuff throughout the year,” Hodge said. “We do all kinds of stuff, but right now, we’re just inundated with holiday stuff.”
Contact Emily Hart at (217) 655-8917 or Tammy Hodge at (217) 822-2622 if you want to be involved. Your address will be added to the local list on a Google form for people to find Santa throughout Georgetown.
“Our goal is to get, you know, some more people on being on the wagon with it, and do, like, some scavenger hunt with it, just to do something fun for families to interact with,” Hodge added.
She said the idea of inspiration came from the village of Atwood.
“You can never have too many Santas! Let’s fill Georgetown with holiday cheer and make everyone’s drive through town a little more magical this Christmas.” She added, “Let’s make this Christmas season extra magical by putting Georgetown on the map — one giant Santa at a time!
Many other local communities are also in on spreading joy with other holiday inflatable themes, for instance, Caitlin is doing polar bears instead of Santas. You can find the inflatable theme for your town or village on the Great Inflatable Christmas Trail Facebook page.
The ‘Great Inflatable Christmas Trail’ began on Nov. 28 and runs until New Year’s Eve.