One of Aurora’s longest-running Christmas traditions returned on Sunday, as the 73rd annual Lehnertz Avenue drive-thru Christmas display opened for the holiday season.
The attraction, which includes an array of lawn signs, cutout figures, religious and secular characters and more, has been a holiday season must for families in the Aurora area for decades.
The opening on Sunday included a blessing of the nativity crib, at the northwest corner of Lehnertz Avenue and Ohio Street, by the Rev. Godwin Asuquo, pastor at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Aurora.
Asuquo spoke after giving the blessing and noted the longstanding holiday tradition on Lehnertz Avenue.
“This is very important and it keeps the tradition that links us to the past. It’s been 73 years. It links us because Christmas happened 2,000 years ago. Just imagine that,” he said. “That history connects us to our faith, not just an empty faith but a faith based on historical reality that did actually happen and people in Aurora have kept that faith for 73 years.”
Lehnertz Avenue Association President Lisa Hardekopf said the event is a collaborative effort, and that people around the area were anxious to help with the set-up, which began Dec. 7, as well as updating displays.
“To me, the biggest thing this year was the way people offered to pitch in and help,” Hardekopf said.
Hardekopf said there was “an incredible amount of help that we had, particularly a week ago.”
“As this tradition has gone on a lot of the people have been doing this for years, and we have to sometimes look for help because of the physical needs and require younger help to sometimes do things,” she said. “We’ve had people from the area and neighbors and friends and people from area churches who have said, ‘Hey, we want to do this. We want to come help.’ We had so many people out here for set-up, and that made everything go so smoothly.”
Hardekopf said what makes the Lehnertz Avenue show unique from other displays is “the community involvement.”
“There are organizations behind others that I am familiar with and Lehnertz is just the neighbors saying we wanted to do this back in the 1950s,” she said. “Somebody said – I know how to do this, or I can do the electric wiring for this, or I know how to do the painting or the cutouts. When something breaks, we don’t run down to Home Depot. In most cases, we have someone who will fix it.”
Longtime resident Sue Gardner, 78, once again offered her display of sheep and shepherds for the event and agreed that there was plenty of outside help this year.
She noted that “many of us are getting older, and some of us were sick.”
“I’ve been here 27 years. The first two, I didn’t participate as I went to Indiana to take care of my mother but then she moved here. The outpouring of people offering help, there were almost too many people,” Gardner said. “When we do this, we have at least half a dozen teams. There are lights, a team for the crib, the glory and excelsior sign, the noel sign and people know when to get started and how to do it all.”
Mary Gaddis’ home again displayed one of the books of the Bible, something that has been a part of her Lehnertz Avenue experience for more than three decades.
“I was born on this street and lived here until I was 26 and later, we moved back,” Gaddis said. “I got married and moved away but then we moved back with my mom. She had a bigger house and we had kids.”
She said the Christmas season event on Lehnertz Avenue has a rich history.
“My parents were some of the very first and what would they think now? They wanted to decommercialize Christmas 73 years ago,” she said. “They wanted everyone to know the reason for the season and that’s what’s it’s all about.”
Like Gaddis, Cele Reinert’s yard sported a display featuring one of the books of the Bible. She also grew up on Lehnertz Avenue.
She said the annual tradition on the street remains special.
“We grew up in the house my dad built and I grew up in it. I moved out and then we had a couple children and then moved back in 1998,” she said. “I look forward to this since my father was one of them who started the whole thing and it makes me happy to see what he created. Every year, people are still enjoying it, and they tell us they came as kids and now they are back with their kids and grandkids. It makes it all worthwhile putting it up. We’ve never had someone come to the street who didn’t want to participate.”
The drive-thru display runs daily from 5 to 10:30 p.m. through Jan. 3. Visitors should enter Lehnertz Avenue via Sheridan Street, go through Lehnertz Circle and exit via Ohio Street, organizers said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
