Our first house together was a very small row home in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia.
As Christmas approached that year we realized none of the neighbors on our block decorated for the holidays. My new wife and I decided to go all
out and completely decorate our little home from sidewalk (there were no front yards) to the top of the A framed roof.
It turned out to be very enjoyable experience. My wife missy decorated the interior and I took the exterior of our
house. Much to our surprise we received compliments from not only our neighbors, but from people passing by that heard
about the little decorated house. The next Christmas it appeared we had started a new trend on our street. Two years
later people would come from all over to see not only our house but also a street of lights. This lasted until 1984 our
little house was just too small for our growing family (and along came Melissa) we moved away shortly after.
Unfortunately after we moved, we would go back to visit family and friends during the holidays but each passing year
the decorations slowly faded away.
My wife, new daughter and I moved into a much larger house in the small town of Merchantville located in New Jersey. Moving from our little house into our new home a three story, five bedrooms
Victorian can be very overwhelming, to think about decorating when we still hade to furnish it. Our new home actually
had a nice open front yard. When it came to decorating the house, there were thousands of possibilities, but nowhere
near enough lights to even decorate twenty-seven (27) windows on the side and front of the house. Our first Christmas
in our new home, we managed to decorate all the windows and trim the entire exterior with lights. But after Christmas
Missy went on a shopping spree and bought every and any decoration that was left at 75% off (thats a lot of
decorations) and she still does to this day. Well except for Christmas of 2001, that year it was my job! She was
preoccupied taking care of our new bundle of joy (then came Madison) that came early in December. Before long our house
was the talk of the town and had been featured on the local news and papers. After awhile, our house was still definitely
big enough for us but we wanted more space for the girls. It was time to move on to bigger and better pastures.
After moving to this new house, with its enormous 2 acre front yard, another decorating challenge presented itself,
we had plenty of lights but not a lot of yard decorations. After decorating the front yard for the first time Christmas 2004, the decorations seem so small and insignificant for the
yard. So that year we broke from tradition and went shopping before Christmas so that our first year in our new house
would feel like home! Do not get me wrong we still shopped after Christmas. Still to this day, our family and
friends (even though we live an hour or so away) still love to visit our house during the holidays to see how much our
Christmas display has grown. Its really nice feeling to know your decorations help spred holiday cheer, that
said, we would still decorate anyway! Now that its a Lawlor family tradition
2007 was our first computer animated holiday display, with over 80,000 lights Dancing to Christmas music and
hopefully continues to grow. We look forward to seeing you next season, and if you do stop by make sure you tune your car radio
to 88.1 FM and enjoy the show
