A Visit To Christmas Past
Revisitng the magic of Rick & Joan Setti’s Spectacular Christmas Village which ran for 26 years nearby in Norwalk.
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
For nearly three decades generations of people, young and old made their yearly pilgrimage to Norwalk each December to one the the greatest Christmas displays in Connecticut and actually one of the best in the country. That fact was established in 2014 when the nationally televised ABC show, “The Great Christmas Light Fight” airing for it’s second year awarded the Settis first place which came with a $50,000 prize.
Rick and Joan’s reaction was stunned amazement in a moment that is a must see, click here: Great Christmas Light Fight.
There are no doubt hundreds and hundreds of Westporters with fond memories of one day being children and teens brought by their parents to years later being parents brining their own little ones to find amazement and joy at the sight. Alone approached the families home they could see they were on the right road as the glow of the lights was visible even before you got to the house.
The family and friends would begin assembling their display, which included 150,000 lights and over 700 hand-made characters in September to get ready for the big day after Thanksgiving Day.
That is when the City made their Midwood Road in Norwalk’s West Rocks section a one way street to try to manage the hundreds of cars which would arrive at dusk to marvel at the brilliant spectacle the Settis created. They added to their display over the years as Rick would create characters from across the spectrum of children’s entertainment in his wood shop and wife Joan would lovingly hand paint each figure. There was everything from early Disney films such as Snow White to the Peanuts Gang. There were scores of snowmen, Surfs galore, their North Pole Village and the scenes from the birth of Jesus. There were numerous room vignettes which the children would clamor into and pose for photos. The demand for electric service was so great CL&P, now Eversource had to install a dedicated transformer to handle the demand.
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com. Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.
The biggest day for the Settis was in fact Christmas Eve. This was when, at “their invitation” Santa and Mrs. Clause would take up their positions and hand out a candy cane to every child who came to sit on Santa’s lap to answer the age old question, “And what would you like for Christmas this year?”, no doubt hoping their Christmas wish would be granted the next morning. This would easily be a four hour process and they were able to tally the number of children who each received one candy cane which sometimes numbers more than 800 children.
The great gift of the first place finish was a poignant one for the Setti’s, who were then in their 70’s and would be making their last Christmas Miracle that year. They told everyone they would hold a tag sale after their season was over so that the beautiful pieces that had been a part of so many people’s lives would then become part of those family’s Christmas decorations.
Photos and Story By J.C. Martin For WestportLocalPress.com. Click on an image to enlarge and open gallery.