Word is spreading about McFaddenville Christmas lights

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, December 2, 2009

By Kathy Chaffin
kchaffin@salisburypost.com
You want to hear a secret?
This is big ó really, really big. If word gets out, Rowan County may not be able to handle the influx of people coming in from all over the world.
So before you read another word, you have to promise you won’t tell. Cross your heart, and hope to live a long and happy life.
The news is already spreading through Winston-Salem. It seems 3-year-old Lillie McFadden was the first to spill the beans.
She told all her friends there that Santa Claus lives in her grandparents’ house on Goodson Road in Rowan County. That’s right.
Let me repeat it in case you cannot believe your ears, er, your eyes. Santa Claus lives in Lillie McFadden’s grandparents’ house on Goodson Road in Rowan County.
Lillie, one of the McFaddens’ four grandchildren, may not be the only one talking. Some of the estimated 1,000 people who have visited Sharon and Richard McFadden’s drive-through Christmas display so far this year might be spreading the news, too.
It’s one of this year’s additions to the display that’s causing all the excitement. The familiar figure, familiar voice, familiar greeting (Hint: It’s a two-letter word repeated three times) all bring a smile to the faces of children and the children hiding out inside the adults.
The McFaddens are being very secretive about the guest in the front bedroom, but acknowledge that he or she or it (they’re not telling) is a big hit with drive-through visitors.
For anyone planning to visit the display at 550 Goodson Road, off U.S. 70, “you have to pay close attention to the bedroom window and listen,” Richard says.
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This is the third year the McFaddens have decorated their property for Christmas, and every year, they’ve expanded the display.
In addition to the figure in the front bedroom, they’ve added a Santa firefighter section this year in memory of Justin Monroe and Victor Isler, the two firefighters killed in the March 7 Salisbury Millwork fire.
Also among the new attractions is the Santa on the roof of the main house with lighted footprints leading from his sleigh and a 6-foot, blue-and-white angel added to the figurine collection in the McFaddens’ sunroom, also known as Toy Land.
“Everything is ‘lands’ around here to us,” Sharon says.
There are a lot of lands on the 2 to 3 acres the McFaddens decorate for the display: Musical Light Show Land, Harley-Davidson Land, Firefighter Land, Tropical Santa Land, Patriotic Land, Toy Land, Penguin Land, Igloo Land, Nativity Land, Gingerbread Land and Elf Land.
The McFaddens opened the drive-through display the night after Thanksgiving, and it will remain open through Dec. 28. Sharon says the two days before Christmas are usually the busiest.
Weekday hours when school is in session are 5:30 to 9 p.m. The rest of the time, the display is open from 5:30 until 11.
Though the lights run their power bill up significantly ó it topped $1,000 in December last year ó the McFaddens say donations from visitors help to offset the cost.
People also donate Christmas lights and decorations for them to use in the display. Richard says they walked outside one day this summer and found a box sitting next to the front door with a 12-foot, inflatable Santa inside.
They found out later one of their neighbors had bought it for them.
When someone donates something, Sharon says, “when they come back the next year, we play a little game: ‘OK, you find it.’ ”
She can’t wait for the woman who donated the plastic wreath to find it. (A hint for the woman: Look up.)
Sharon uses her 20 years experience with crafts to make decorations, arrange the lights and design the displays by themes. That’s a full-time job, her husband says.
Richard, who manages computers for the Boy Scouts of America distribution center in Charlotte, says they start putting out the different sections of the display on Labor Day weekend.
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The McFaddens started decorating their property ó which includes their house, a smaller house next to them, a granary and acreage ó as a way of giving back to the community.
Sharon says she still remembers how much she enjoyed the Santa, sleigh and reindeer that used to be on the roof of Bernhardt Hardware in downtown Salisbury.
“I was talking to my husband one day and said I’d like to do a Christmas display to give people memories like I have,” she says. “That was always special to me.”
For the McFaddens, watching the children enjoy the display is worth all the work and money they put into it.
“I cannot explain the joy that we feel when we hear the children giggling and laughing,” Sharon says, “and children of all ages. We had a lady come through the other night, she was 101 years old.
“It just puts a warm feeling in our hearts that maybe we are making some special memories for people because that’s really what we wanted to do.”
The McFaddens greet all visitors as they drive through the display. Sharon says they dress in three layers when temperatures are as low as they were Sunday and Monday and stand around a kerosene heater to stay warm.
Their Santa hats also help ward off the cold. “They’re not good for the hairdos,” Sharon says, “but they’re warm.”
Sharon and Richard offer candy canes to everyone. This year, they’ve handed out 6,000 to the 1,000 people who have come through.
“A lot of people will circle multiple times,” she explains. “We always joke with them and tell them we give out refills.”
Some of this year’s visitors remembered the McFaddens running out of candy canes last year and brought some extra boxes for them.
“They’ve also brought us homemade cake and candies, all kinds of goodies,” Sharon says. “They bring us Christmas ornaments and gifts.”
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Humans aren’t the only ones enjoying the McFaddens’ display.
Richard says there are 13 deer that hang out in one of the front fields with the nine lighted, wire-framed reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh.
“Three of them show up every year to watch us decorate,” Sharon says. By the time they opened the display this year, she says 10 more had joined them.
The deer don’t usually come out until the lights go off at night. The McFaddens oftentimes see them eating beside the wire-framed deer. “It’s really cute,” she says.
The lighted panel “Count Down to Christmas” sign near the entrance to the display stays up all year.
Sharon says the sign was turned off for a couple of months this summer when they were having their electrical service upgraded to accommodate the growing display.
This upset neighbors and passersby, she says. “They would stop by and ask us, ‘Does this mean you’re not going to have the display?’ ”
Richard goes out every day and manually changes the numbers.
“On Dec. 26,” he says, “it will say 365 days until Christmas.”