A snow baby collection at grandma’s house. A ceramic Santa at grandpa’s house. A small Christmas tree on the fireplace mantle.
Children often take the little nostalgic details of Christmas from their childhood into adulthood.
But for Mahomet native Ashley Yancy, the spirit of those little nostalgic details are something that should be cherished, shared with loved ones and can even be a catalyst to create memories for hundreds of children in a community.
“My family always did big lights, big Christmas and big Thanksgiving,” Ashley said “My mom decorates her whole house. I decorate my house. Easter we have decorations. I grew up with this.”
Ashley and Steve’s home, located at 205 E. State Street in Mahomet, has become a destination for holiday light-viewers.
When Ashley married fellow Mahomet native Steve Yancy, the couple did not see eye-to-eye on decorating for the holidays.
The display started off small, with a few family hand-me-downs and lights here and there.
“I’ve had the ‘Santa Stops Here’ sign since I was little,” she said. “When I had kids, my mom gave it to me.”
“My mom always decorated, my grandparents always decorated. I just remember having all those decorations. So when I had kids I was like ‘I am going to do that, too.’ ”
But getting Steve on board was tricky.
“When I first started talking about it, he was kind of reluctant,” Ashley said. “He just loves it now. I know I rubbed off on him.”
Now Steve actively participates in planning out and putting up the holiday decorations that children walking home from Lincoln Trail Elementary School stop to admire.
Through the years, the Yancys have added to their collection, purchasing discounted items both before and after Christmas. In an effort to cut down on electricity cost, the couple has been working to replace all the lights to LED.
The 2020 display boasts a roof full of lights donned with Santa and his reindeer, glowing trains and snowflakes, a blow-up yard Santa, a snowman, and a reindeer.
“I hate bare spots,” Ashley said.
“I just do it mostly for kids,” Ashley said. “Little kids from Lincoln Trail will walk by and they will see the big Santa or the Snowman. And then we have friends who will message us on Facebook, asking, ‘Are you guys going to have your lights again this year?’
“People actually look forward to seeing it, so we like to do it because people are looking forward to seeing it.”
Ashley remembers touring the Champaign-Urbana area, looking at the lights, with her family as a child.
“My parents used to take me through Candlestick lane,” she said. “We’d go to Schoonovers. We’d make a night of it. I want to have one of those houses that people drive by really slowly and say, ‘Look at that!’”
It usually takes about a week for the Yancys to put up the display.
“Skylar and Steve will go on the roof. Taran and his friend will do all the icicle lights, and Ryan and I do the yard stuff. Steve and I do the shed and the fence stuff.
“They may gripe about it, but then when it’s done, they will step back and say ‘That’s really cool, mom!’ ”
Once the outside lights are up, Ashley starts on the inside of the house. With a Christmas tree in every room and hallway, except the master bedroom, Yancy’s house glows with the white lights of Christmas.
“My kids say it looks like Hallmark threw up in my house,” Ashley said. “I just enjoy sitting there watching Christmas shows and having the Christmas lights going.”
But it’s the memories that the snow babies, the ceramic Santa and the small Christmas tree that her grandfather placed on the mantle year after year that makes the season special.
“It brings back memories of when you’re young,” she said. “That’s another reason I like to do it with kids because when my kids grow up, one day when I’m dead and gone, they’ll be like ‘Your grandma and grandpa used to do amazing decorations.’
“It’s something my kids will want to do with their kids when they are older.”
