Some residents share spirit of Christmas just a bit early

By Elise Franco

A local woman said she’s been decorating for every holiday since she was 9 years old.

1For Lil Donofrio, 76, of Youngstown, that tradition includes fully decorating the interior of her apartment, the balcony and shrubs out front and the hallway inside her building.

The bushes and crab apple tree outside her apartment are draped from top to bottom with white mini-lights, and she hangs white icicle lights from the balcony.

“Just to be able to climb on the ladder and decorate that [crab apple] tree one more year makes me happy,” Donofrio said.

She said the finishing touches to the outside, lighted reindeer and a snowman will be put out today.

“It all takes at least three days,” Donofrio said as she strung lights across a homemade tree. “I’ve been decorating like this since I was 9.”

Her daughter, Jackie Herman of Austintown, described the amount of decorating as being more extensive than Kraynak’s in Hermitage, Pa.

Donofrio, who lives in Brandywine Apartments, said Friday night that she began at 9 a.m. and didn’t stop until 6 p.m.

She said she and her father used to go all out for every holiday, especially Christmas.

“It started with him and continued until now,” she said. “It’s something I’ve enjoyed since I was a young girl. I did it for my kids and now for my great-grandkids.”

Donofrio said the feeling she gets when her family and neighbors see the finished product is the reason she continues decorating so extensively.

“Neighbors will come and thank me,” she said. “They love it.”

Donofrio said that after she finished putting up the rest of her decorations, she won’t turn any of the lights back on until after Thanksgiving.

Just up the street on Saturday afternoon, Ray Housteau, 47, of Canfield, and his 9-year-old son, Ryan, were just starting to string lights around a weeping willow tree in the front yard of their Fawn Drive home.

Housteau, like Donofrio, began decorating with his father when he was very young.

“My dad did it at his house, and I helped,” he said. “It was fun for me. It made it feel like Christmas.”

Every year since then, Housteau said, he’s been out on a ladder at the beginning of November stringing lights and garland.

“I have to have it done by the end of November,” he said. “I get carried away with it. We have cars stop in front of the house, and you can see it from Tippecanoe Road pretty easily.”

Housteau said each year he strings white lights through the garland and bushes and uses blue lights on the branches of the trees in front of his house before wrapping the trunks with white lights.

“I use over 10,000 lights,” he said. “I spend eight to 10 hours per day every weekend working on the house.”

Housteau said seeing blue Christmas lights is uncommon, which is why he chose that color. He’s just recently switched all his bulbs to LED.

“This is the first year all my lights are LED,” he said. “They’re more expensive, but I saw them and was blown away by how bright they were.”

Housteau said that although he has spent between $200 and $500 in recent years on new LED lights, the energy savings are substantial.

He also said this year is particularly special for him because it’s the first year all three of his children will be old enough to remember.

“I love creating it because I’m more motivated now ... to have the kids look at it,” Housteau said. “No one gets to see it until it’s all done, though.”

He said regardless of the weather, he’ll be outside until every light is strung and lit — except, of course, if the Ohio State Buckeyes or Cleveland Browns are on TV.

“I never work during Ohio State or Cleveland Browns games,” Housteau said, laughing.

efranco@vindy.com