Lighting Up The Season

Niantic may have its light parade but for many Waterford residents who’ll be heading there this Sunday, the route to the neighboring town involves a detour off Niantic River Road down East Bishop.

For more than a decade, this small side street has lit up the holiday season with Christmas lights, skating penguins, reindeer and huskies, sleighs and Eskimos, Santas that wave and ride in hot air balloons, a crèche and the Polar Express train. And it all started because 15 years ago, Liz Guay told her husband, Mike, that she wanted to put some Christmas lights on the bushes outside their house.

What started out as lights for the bushes expanded to include a reindeer and sleigh that the Guays thought would appeal to their two boys, Andrew and Christopher. When their neighbor Joe Garafano’s 3-year-old daughter Gabriella saw it she said, “Daddy, I want lights!” The whole thing snowballed from there.

In some neighborhoods, holiday displays are a competition between the Joneses but Liz Guay says that on East Bishop, “It was never a competition. It was always a collaboration.”   

Indeed, Joe Garafano and Mike Guay worked together to construct a train made of lights to wish the whole neighborhood a happy holiday. “Joe and I spearheaded it,” says Mike Guay. “We ended up decorating houses that weren’t ours. The street got crazy with it.”

In past years, the whole street has been involved but this year the display is concentrated at the Guay’s house at number 9. Putting on the annual display just about doubles the family’s electricity bill but Liz Guay says they budget for it all year long and people sometimes offer donations to help pay the bill. That’s not what the Guay’s ask for, however.

Three years ago, Mike Guay made a chimney with a sign asking for donations of nonperishable food items for the in New London. Thanks to donations, last year the Guays were able to donate 400 pounds of food to the food center. They took the cash donations—many of which are pennies dropped into the chimney by children—to BJ’s to buy more expensive proteins, such as chicken, for the Gemma Moran Food Center.

Mike Guay says he’ll keep putting on the annual display for as long as he can climb a ladder and string lights. His sons, now 20 and 24, make a point of coming home to help every year too.  Decorating the street for the holidays has become a family tradition and it’s a tradition that includes caroling on Christmas Eve—with singers accompanied on trumpets played by Mike, his brother, and his son on the porch.

Christmas Eve also gave birth to another tradition. Although the display includes a creche, the baby Jesus doesn’t make his appearance until his official birthday. The honor of placing the baby in the manger falls to the Guay’s youngest son Andrew and their neighbor’s daughter Gabriella. During the kids’ teen years, this wasn’t always so cool, but they've done it every year and return home from college for the festivities now.

For Liz Guay, the fun is donning a Santa hat and passing out candy canes to children whose families make the annual pilgrimage to the street. And there are many of them. On Friday night, dozens of cars stopped by to look at the new additions and remember their favorites. Joe and Kim Anderson were just two for whom the drive down East Bishop has become a family tradition.

“My daughter, she loves it,” says Joe Anderson.

That’s one of the main reasons the Guays are so committed to continuing the tradition. Each year, they hear from people who tell them that they visit the street to see the lights. Some people, who first came with their children, are now returning with grandchildren. One woman who had a compromised immune system that confined her to her vehicle said she would pass by daily to celebrate the holidays. Another woman, visiting from China, said she planned to take the idea back to her home country.

“Every year, someone comes by and thanks us,” says Mike Guay.

“There was a young child, 2 or 3, just gushing, ‘I think these are the most beautiful lights I’ve ever seen in my whole life!’ I think it’s marvelous,” says Liz Guay. “It’s not the biggest [display], it’s not the loudest, but we sincerely enjoy it. It’s seeing the kids and hearing the heartwarming stories. We’re blessed we’re able to do this.”