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NORWALK, Conn. Julie Donahue brings her two young daughters to a Norwalk neighborhood to see "The Light House" almost every night but this year the magical Christmas display almost didn't happen.
Rick Setti, famous locally for the intensely decorated Christmas village he and his wife have presented at their home for more than two decades, didn't know what would happen when he flicked the switch for a circuit check the night before Thanksgiving. "I was surprised everything lit up," he said.
The Settis lost power for six days after the freakishly early snowstorm in October. Many of the Christmas light lines he had put up blew down. Yet in spite of the challenges brought on by the weather, Setti's Christmas Village is bigger and brighter than ever.
Setti moved a fence that was at the front of his property, increasing the available space for his plywood Christmas figures. Filling the newly enlarged yard wasn't hard at all. He found some plastic figures that he hadn't used in years in a shed and created 100 new figures as well as new house-fronts for a new display. His helper, John Kiefer, who is "like a son," built a new gazebo, and Setti surrounded it with children's furniture to create a little park, which Donahue's daughters, 3-year-old Maggie and 4 ½-year-old Katie, paused to explore recently, gazing at the Christmas tree set up in the gazebo.
Also new is a wishing well. Setti has had a "skating rink" for years, but this year's version is new, and has been moved further from the house, out into the new space.
"By moving everything out we were able to open the whole village up," said Setti, who will be 70 soon. "I still have some ideas for next year. I might even increase it, make it even bigger."
Big is the word. Lights dangle from every tree, some of them draped over walkways. Little houses line one side of the lawn, and Setti's new houses are in a row along the back. Artificial Christmas trees are arranged throughout, and Christmas figures are everywhere.
His wife and her enthusiasm for Christmas were the motivation for the display, now in its 22nd year. They love telling this story: He said he didn't like her decorations and she suggested he try decorating himself. He started with nine little elves made from four patterns that he sent away for, and five Styrofoam buildings.
It's now a year-round activity. He cuts out his new figures with a Roto-zip from January to April, and then sets out to paint them with an Aug. 15 deadline in mind, knowing that he needs the rest of the months between then and Christmas to hang the lights.
Sure, the village is open now, but Setti is still busy. He has nine bins of lights to go through. "These are specialty lights I can't get anymore," he said. "Now all they have is LEDs, so I have to fix the lights I have because the LEDs will cost me a fortune."
The lights are all on, but some are misplaced. "There still are a lot of lines down in the lower section, the lower woods," he said. "They're on the ground, but fortunately they're all lit. I just haven't got in there yet to put them up." His wife said they look okay, so he left them there.
The snow storm knocked down his neighbor's 80-foot oak, which took out a telephone pole on its way down. The power outage set Setti back. "I couldn't work in the shop, I couldn't put up lights, I couldn't do anything," he said.
Setti was outside until 11 p.m. the night before Thanksgiving and was back at it from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, when the village opens. "I was really behind," he said. "This is the first year that I was ever this far behind. But everything worked out."
"Everyone pitched in" and the show went on. Everyone includes electrician Mark Vincent and Setti's wife, Joan, who didn't get to decorate as much inside because she helped get the village open on time.
She says there is more new in the yard than the figures. "Every year is bigger," she said. "There are so many new people who have never been here. I guess it's word of mouth."
Donahue said she visited the village for the first time more than a decade ago and was pleased to stumble over it last year, since she had children. She has also met new visitors in the yard, including a couple from Willimantic who said they like to "hit the high spots."
They all help to create Christmas joy, Rick Setti said. "People come up to me and thank me," he said. "I just make this stuff and put it up."
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