For 29 years, passersby on Berkshire Road have looked out their car windows with wide eyes and taken in the cheerful sights of resident David Rosato’s holiday display.

Growing up, he remembers how his parents would always decorate the home for the holidays but how it never veered into anything too extravagant.

When he moved to Newtown, first at 21 Berkshire Road near the Newtown High School, he began dabbling in decorating his property for all to enjoy.

“It started out small,” Mr Rosato recalled. “I primarily did it when my daughter was born.”

After moving down the road nine years later to his current residence, 37 Berkshire Road, near the Toddy Hill and Route 34 intersection stoplight, he had more space to work with, and his decorating quickly began expanding each year.

“I have an 18-foot inflatable Frosty the Snowman; there’s a 20-foot inflatable Santa, and there are characters from different Christmas-themed movies…” he said, listing off what he currently features.

Nostalgic Christmas characters like the Grinch (depicted stealing lights off the fencing) as well as the Heat and Snow Misers — the latter being personal favorites of Mr Rosato — are made of plywood, and each have a spotlight on them. Nearby, small figures of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and characters from the Island of Misfit Toys are lit up along the front of the home.

His display also incorporates a large light-up sign that reads “Merry Christmas,” which he swaps out after the big day for a “Happy New Year” sign.

“It’s an idea I came up with a few years back, and it has gone over very well,” he said of the sign switcheroo. “It’s kind of my grand finale.”

Mr Rosato estimates he uses 20,000 or more lights, which outline his home and driveway, and says that over the years, he never had any major outages or snafus. He did, however, need to add extra electrical power to help the display’s lighting and said that the move to LED lights has been beneficial for efficiency.

The entire decorating project has also evolved and is now divided up between him and his family. It takes a full weekend of work, along with a few following week days, to assemble the display, which generally is up by December 1 then taken down around January 5.

“My daughter, Desiree (Rosato) Filipek, and son-in-law, Richard Filipek, have helped extensively in the last few years,” he said. “Everyone pitches in. I do the house; they do the yard.”

The next generation is also contributing to the holiday tradition with Mr Rosato’s grandsons Dominic, 5, and Roman, 3, lending a helping hand.

With a smile, he said, “They’ve learned quickly that their grandfather is a Christmas person.”

Award-Winning Display

Mr Rosato’s holiday decorations are not only adored by many travelers driving by, but his display has even been formally recognized by local enthusiasts as superb.

For the last three years, he has been invited to participate in the Newtown Holiday Decorating Contest, organized by Sandy Hook resident Lois Barber, and he has been the recipient of its highly-coveted star decorations for winners.

Multiple homes are featured in the town-wide contest, and on a selected day mid-December, residents tour all the displays together and judge the best decorations.

After this year’s Newtown Holiday Decorating Contest judging on December 16, Mr Rosato received the biggest barn star for the Lifetime Achievement Award.

“I really want to thank Lois,” Mr Rosato said. “The decorating contest has brought a lot of people together and has been a big hit the last few years.”

Seasons Come, Seasons Go

Despite the award-winning status of his display and the admiration of many residents, this will be the last time Mr Rosato will decorate his Berkshire Road home for the holidays.

“We’ve known about the redevelopment of Exit 11 for about a year now, so it was just a question of when the funds would become available,” he explained.

“I was adding new features every year [to the display], but when we were notified by the state that they were going to acquire the property, we had to scale back. I would have grown it even larger, but not at this point.”

Mr Rosato says he will be moving to Danbury because of the acquisition of his home, but that his daughter will remain in town and may continue the legacy he started.

“I have some decorations I can’t eliminate, or she might disown me,” he said jokingly. “And my grandkids really enjoy most of the items.”

Looking back on his time decorating his beloved home for Christmas and New Year’s (and even Halloween and the Fourth of July), Mr Rosato says he feels fortunate for all the positive support he has received.

“I enjoy the fact that the last ten years or so, as I decorate, people go by and honk. It has been a staple in town for a while,” he said. “People look forward to it being done, and we get a kick out of the fact that people enjoy it so much.”

For those looking to achieve the same caliber of decorations Mr Rosato had and pick up the metaphorical holiday baton, he says the person will definitely need dedication.

“It always starts out small,” he said, “but it will definitely expand.”