Santa Sharon has a deal for you.
For more than 40 years, Sharon Ehrig decorated her home on Woodlawn Avenue North with thousands of Christmas lights and other decorations. Her home was so brightly decorated that it was on the old-time Metro bus tour of Christmas lights for 10 years. And for 18 years, Ehrig dressed in a Santa suit and sat on her front porch, rocking for hours as visitors passed by.
But all that ended in 2011 after Ehrig broke her wrist and her husband, Fred, died two years later. No more lights.
This holiday season, Ehrig is giving away her decorations to Wallingford residents: some 30,000 lights and other Christmas decorations, including her fleet of eight reindeer, equipped with saddles, that she’d like to see go to one person. She also has a giant Santa perched on a chair, with a golden retriever by his side, that she never displayed.
Some of her displays are inflatables, including Halloween decorations she also hopes to find new homes for. She has a seven-foot hearse with a horse and skeleton, a bat globe and a seven-foot monster, all inflatable.
“I want to give them away to people who will appreciate them,” said Ehrig, adding that her husband had been stringing lights on their Wallingford home even before they married in 1966. Every year she’d add more lights and decorations, and her electric bill grew so high ($250 a month) that neighbors and a group of bicyclists helped to pay for it. “It hurts me not to do it anymore, but I had to quit.” She said she and her husband never exchanged Christmas gifts but considered their house a gift to the neighborhood.
Ehrig said anyone interested in her Halloween decorations can come by her home at 3916 Woodlawn Ave. N. this Saturday, between 11 a.m to 4 p.m. She will host a separate giveaway for her Christmas decorations sometime in November. While she is not selling the decor, she said she will accept donations to her “retirement fund.”
— Article contributed by Susan Gilmore.
This may sound a little obvious, and I don’t know any of the people involved, but why doesn’t someone who knows Sharon suggest that she give the decorations to the family who lost their home to fire on Latona near 42nd last year and are now rebuilding? They lost all of their extensive holiday decorations in the fire.
Thank you jonberkedal, that’s kind of you. She did actually donate some items to us and a box of items to our friend. We are putting up some Halloween decorations this year. Not too many because we are not there to protect them. We hope to have a nice display for the children on Halloween.