There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays
Every year during the holidays, the property on the corner of Lake Street and 4th Avenue in Warroad is transformed into a Winter Wonderland. Elliot and Teresa Larson have been decorating their home for the Christmas season since they moved here back in 1980. What started as simple icicle lights strung along the roofline, grew into an elaborate display that sprawls over two lots and fills the community with Christmas cheer, year after year.
Elliot and Teresa grew up together in Elbow Lake, MN and were high school sweethearts that married just a few years after graduating. When the opportunity arose for him to work as an accountant for Marvin, the Larsons moved their young family with two little girls to Warroad from Little Falls, MN. Neither had grown up in homes that were heavily decorated for the holidays, but they were inspired by the other festive homes in the neighborhood and wanted to add a little cheer to their new home.
A few Christmases after moving to Warroad, Teresa came home with an oversized box containing a life-size Santa figure. The 6’ tall jolly guy took up residence on their front porch, wishing “Ho ho ho and Merry Christmas” to all that visited. They added a little more each year and by the late-90s they were winning the town competition for best decorated house. They continued to add 5-7 pieces each year, always looking for the unique one-of-a-kind pieces that would set their yard apart.
As luck would have it, the husband of one of their daughters works for a company that imports Christmas items, so they were able to find many unique pieces through him. In fact, they estimate that one third to one half of all their décor was sourced this way. The majority of the other items were picked up from after-Christmas sales, but some, like the snowman made of wheels that towers over 10’ tall, were custom-made by the Larsons.
With so many pieces, they have run into a few hiccups over the years. When lights burned out, Elliot got to work repairing them. Although he jokes about the time he spent three hours trying to fix a string of icicle lights before ultimately throwing them out, he became quite adept at repairing and even rewiring to LED lighting. When they ran out of power, they added new breaker boxes. When they ran out of room in their yard, they were able to purchase the property next to theirs, doubling the size of their display. And when they ran out of room to store their items, they constructed a shop/garage with over 1200 square feet of dedicated storage in the attic.
After forty years, Elliot and Teresa have gotten in a pretty good routine when it comes to setting up for Christmas, though they jokingly admit it doesn’t always bring out the best in a relationship. Before the snow flies, sometime in mid-October, they place the items on the roof. The past couple of years, they were unable to do so, due to knee and hip replacements between the two of them. But this year, friends and neighbors pitched in to make it happen. These extra hands also made quick work of emptying out the attic a few weeks later. Each year the routine is the same. Take everything out of the attic, plug in each item to ensure it is working and set aside if it will require repair. Sort through the totes full of digital timers and extension cords, and purchase new cords or strings of lights if needed.
Their goal is to always have the display completely ready by the day after Thanksgiving. A timer that tracks the time until Christmas down to the second is always the finishing piece. Then for the next 5-6 weeks, their yard is the highlight of the holidays in Warroad. Buses full of Warroad Senior Living Center residents and Early Learner’s Center students drive by, along with streams of slow-moving vehicles every evening. People often get out to take their picture every year in the ever-changing display, because while the Larsons have slowed down on adding new items, they always change how they set it up. They like to keep the display up through New Year’s, but as soon as there is a nice 20-30 degree day after that, they get to work removing it all and packing it away. The items on the roof stay there until the spring when the Larsons return from Florida and it is safe to remove them.
Now into their 70s, Elliot and Teresa find themselves discussing when they will be done with this elaborate Christmas display. Every year, they think, “this might be the last year”, but then the next year rolls around and there they are, sorting everything out to start again. What motivates them to continue doing all this work, year after year?
The people who drive by.
As they sit in their living room each night, seeing rows of headlights slowly pass by, they feel a deep satisfaction knowing that all the work was worth it. People anticipate the annual display and have stopped them in the grocery store to ask when it will be up. They’ve even had someone bring them a cake to thank them for their work to bring holiday cheer to the community! Perhaps the most meaningful feedback they ever received was from a young man whose wife had been diagnosed with cancer and the prognosis was grim with just a few months left to live. He told them he just wanted her to make it to the holidays so that they could drive together down Lake Street and see the display one more time.
So, if you have never had the pleasure of seeing their labor of love, take a slow drive down Lake Street NW and take it all in. You will see Santa’s friendly wave and big smile on their front porch like every year, and if you look through their front window, you may even catch a smile and wave from the Larsons.
