Christmas decorations light up the home of Shannon Legge, of Fairview Avenue. Legge makes a yearly tradition of decorating his home during the holiday season. Pictured below are decorations put up by his neighbors, one being a sign that says, “Ditto,” and another that says, “#CrazyNeighbor.”
(Journal-Tribune photo by Chad Williamson)
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Not even an injury can stop a Marysville man from celebrating Christmas.
Shannon Legge, of 259 Fairview Ave., has a tradition where he covers his front lawn and roof to be the most extravagantly decorated house in the neighborhood. From dozens of inflatable decorations to “Peanuts” Christmas music playing in his front yard, he goes all out for the holidays. He said his neighbors claim to be able to see his bright lights all the way from U.S. 33.
“I would say some of my inspiration came from the Griswold’s Christmas,” Legge said with a chuckle.
Legge said the tradition started nearly 15 years ago, when his children were enamored by seeing Christmas lights while passing by decorated houses. Since then, he’s been increasing the number of inflatables and lights he puts on his property.
He has most of his decorations on his house this year, but that almost didn’t get to happen.
Legge said after Thanksgiving, he went to his basement to gather his inflatables and Christmas lights when he tripped on some stairs. He’s spending this Christmas on crutches and recovering from surgery, and almost wanted to cancel putting up decorations.
His son, Jacob, goes to college in Toledo, and when he visited home for Thanksgiving, he decided to take his father’s mantle and keep up the tradition.
“This year, (my son) came home from college and a bunch of the neighbors pitched in and they put them up for us,” Shannon said.
Jacob said he gathered his grandfather and three neighbors to decorate his home. What Shannon said would normally take him weeks to complete, they got it done in a day.
Jacob said this tradition means too much to him to skip. He said he wants to keep the tradition alive to honor his deceased brothers, A.J. and Joshua.
“I had two younger brothers, and they passed away when I was five years old,” Jacob said. “That’s part of why it’s so big, so they can see it all the way from heaven. We always say we’re going to stop but we never stop.”
Shannon said he enjoys putting smiles on people’s faces, and that helps motivate him to keep his decorations glowing every year.
“I want to do it until I can’t do it anymore,” Shannon said. “It’s hard for me to turn over the reigns, and next year I’ll be back.”
He said he and his family dress up as Santa and other Christmas characters on Christmas Eve and give candy canes to children who visit. He suggested maybe Jacob would be taking the role of Santa instead this year, as “Santa can’t be out there on crutches.”
“This is all for the little kids, and they love it,” Shannon said. “It also seems to make a lot of people happy.”
Jacob said since it means a lot to the people in his neighborhood, he wants to do it. He said he doesn’t see himself skipping a Christmas, with decorations and giving to the community, with his family in the near future.
“It’s part of our Christmas tradition to have it like this, and I didn’t want it to stop this way because I had left for college or dad broke his ankle,” he said.
Shannon said when he moved from Northcrest Drive to Fairview Avenue eight years ago, he brought a lot of holiday spirit to his new neighborhood.
He noted there weren’t many Christmas decorations and trick-or-treating was scarce back then. With the way Shannon celebrates Halloween and Christmas, he said he’s brought nearly 150 trick-or-treaters to the neighborhood this year.
Shannon said his “addictive” decoration habits have spread to others in the neighborhood, “and that’s a good kind of addiction.” One of his neighbors has a sign that says “ditto” next to his property and the other has a sign in lights that says, “#CrazyNeighbor.”
Dan Blumenschein, one of Shannon’s neighbors, said he welcomes the large amount of decorations in the neighborhood.
When he found out about Shannon breaking his ankle this year, he mobilized with Jacob and other neighbors to help decorate his house.
“We would have understood if he didn’t put them up, but we would have missed them,” Blumenschein said. “That’s why everyone went over there to help. We like to see that.”
He said he hasn’t seen anything like it in the 35 years he’s lived on Fairview Avenue, “and I love them.”