MANSFIELD — Driving past the Wasylenki house on Overlook Road in Mansfield, the holiday lights decorating the front yard are relatively unassuming.
But drive around to the backyard, and that’s where the real Christmas magic begins.
Morris and Carol Wasylenki have been decorating their backyard with a little extra flair for the past 12 years, stringing thousands of lights together on their grove of trees in Mansfield’s Woodland area. What started as a family treat has since grown into a tradition their whole neighborhood looks forward to.
Carol Wasylenki explained the family spends most of its time in the front living room, with a large window overlooking the backyard.
“We live in this room, and we wanted to be able to actually see the lights, so we thought we’d just light up the backyard for us,” Carol said. “We started with just a few reindeer, and each year we added on.”
The Wasylenkis have lived at their home at 621 Overlook Road for the past 18 years, and began their Christmas light extravaganza as a treat to their two daughters. Once they got started, they started adding lights every year.
“Now it’s a tradition for a lot of families in the neighborhood,” Carol said.
The tradition even expands to families outside of the Mansfield area.
“People started leaving letters at the front door, five- or six-year-old kids leaving letters saying they love the lights,” Morris said. “And from all over the place, as people’s grandkids come visit for Christmas and they come by to see the lights.”
Children aren’t the only visitors to the Wasylenki’s home. Groups of carolers visit frequently, groups of people ask to take pictures amongst the trees, and some people simply request a moment to sit and appreciate the lights.
The inaugural lighting of the backyard has become a tradition as well. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the Wasylenkis invite friends and family over for a party and an outdoor viewing of “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.”
“Clark leads us, and we all stand out there and light it up,” Morris said.
After 12 years of putting up lights, both Morris and Carol have their routines down to a science. It takes about two weekends for Morris to wrap lights around all the trees in the backyard, and Carol only about three hours to finagle the extension cords just right.
“One year we had over 100 extension cords. I reduced that by a lot,” she said with a laugh. “I know where to start, and I work from one end to the other.”
The lights will stay up all the way through February, and the Wasylenkis try to be respectful of their neighbors and turn the backyard off at a reasonable hour. Except on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve – on those holidays, the lights stay on through the night.
“We try to be kind to our neighbors, but for the most part they don’t mind and they actually like it,” Carol said. “Our neighbors always call if we get a snowstorm and say, ‘Turn those lights on!'”
This year’s light display came with a bit of hesitance due to the fact that the Wasylenkis had to remove 15 trees from their yard, so they feel the lighting looks a bit sparse. In fact, Carol plans to take a page from the Trumpowers’ display and create some Christmas trees to fill in their grove.
But sure enough, the Saturday after Thanksgiving the lights went on yet again.
“Now we have a reputation to uphold,” Morris joked. “As long as I can still climb in trees, I’ll still do it.”
