What started as a way to cure his boredom has turned into a beloved holiday tradition for a Carman man.
Rick Beers has been setting up a display in his yard almost every holiday since he and his wife moved to Carman three years ago.
As the couple moved to town during the COVID-19 pandemic, they weren’t able to get out and make friends the way they’d have liked. And because Beers is a hairdresser, he wasn’t working at that time, so to give himself something to do during the day, he started making Halloween decorations for his yard.
As families would walk by his yard and take in the scene, Beers would say hi, and it wasn’t long before the children gave him their ideas of what else he should add to his displays.
During his first Christmas in Carman, his friends from Canada’s maritime provinces — where Beers previously called home — were asking what he’d put up in his yard, which added more fuel to his fire.
“It started as a Halloween thing and it got right out of hand,” he said, laughing.
After getting a donation of birch wood from a neighbour, Beers crafted multiple reindeer to sell for $40 in support of the Carman and District Christmas Cheer Board. By the end, he’d fundraised more than $800 for the cause, and the reindeer can still be seen around town during the holidays.
That following Valentine’s Day, he made another display. He did the same for St. Patrick’s Day, and then Easter, making more than 180 different objects for his yard, including four-foot rabbits, a Bugs Bunny, and more.
Each time a child gave him an idea, he made it and added it to the scene. Once the season was over, he made a post online asking people to pick a number and the three closest got to take what they wanted from the display.
This Halloween, Beers made his front yard into the Hard Rock Cemetery, complete with rockers coming from graves and tombstones; he spent nearly 70 hours working on the display.
“It’s just become a tradition since that first year,” he said.
This Christmas, Beers has installed another of his locally famous displays in his yard — this time with a sweet touch.
Lights of yellows, blues, reds and greens illuminate the trees on his front lawn. A large, inflatable Santa Claus waves to passersby from behind a festive raccoon. A family of snowmen sit together in front of his house. Lit up reindeer pull a sleigh coming from an arbour in his yard made to resemble the North Pole, complete with Santa waving from the chimney. A gingerbread man shines from the side of the house, candy canes lead the way to his door and candy canes hang from the famous Candy Cane Tree right off the sidewalk.
This year, the Candy Cane Tree has real candy canes hanging from it amid the fake ones — and anyone walking by can grab one as a treat.
“It’s a good pastime,” said Beers. “And I just enjoy talking to the kids and the parents. We moved here and the only place we could meet new people was through this. I’ve made new friendships on my front lawn.”
