There’s a unique holiday display outside a West Main Street home, featuring 25 animal decorations across the front lawn. The owners affectionally call these their “tinselmals.” While these are outdoor decorations, when you drive by you take away the feeling of looking into a department store’s holiday window, from days past with penguins, reindeer, snowmen and other pieces.
“This is something that makes us happy, makes the house feel warm,” the owner said.
The couple moved into their home about four years ago. Her husband brought the holiday light collection. She brought her engineering background.
They have decorated and added new pieces each year. “We have an agreement – we can get 2-3 new ones each year,” she said with a smile.
They carefully plan their new purchases and set up the display around these. This year, they added a Ginger Bread boy and girl, and a reindeer.
As ornate as this collection looks, she said they have purchased many of the decorations at Lowe’s and other retailers. As for older parts, they try and take care of these, keep them in working condition. Recently, she couldn’t find a replacement part and showed us one of her workarounds using a few pencils.
Each year, the couple sets up the display before Thanksgiving, before the deep freeze. Mother Nature decides when they can remove the pieces. While the “tinselmals” are traditionally Christmas decorations, the couple has also set up a similar display on Halloween before.
“This is such a special and picturesque area and this is something we can do to add to that.”
Driving down West Main Street toward Devens, the light display is two houses after the bridge.
Please note: these photos were shared with us as a courtesy for this story.