For the last five years, a small, quiet village in central Nebraska has made a spectacle of itself by setting up an elaborate display of Christmas lights and inflatables across 12 blocks of homes and businesses.
Despite the global pandemic, this year will be no different.
Henry Nuxoll, Christmas Coordinator for Comstock, Nebraska, says he inadvertently started the tradition of decking out the town in holiday gear after a strange occurrence in 2014.
"I put lights on my house to impress my (late) twin brother who could see it from heaven...and my 15-month granddaughter,” Nuxoll said. “That was my sole objective.”
Nuxoll said he finished setting up his decorations on Thanksgiving Day that year. Sometime after, he learned he had a package waiting for him at the post-office.
“An inflatable reindeer and Santa showed up at the post office anonymously,” Nuxoll said. The package also came with a message: "Hope you can use these.”
“So, I trudged up my roof and put them up, “said Nuxoll.
But it didn't stop there.
“For some reason or another, about every other day or so, a garbage bag would show up with new lights or inflatables at a different location by me,” said Nuxoll. “Like an idiot, I just kept putting them up.”
Nuxoll estimates he received around $3,500 worth of packages filled with Christmas decorations and has been putting them up every year since. This year he says he will enlist an “army” of six to eight helpers to assist in putting up the display.
Examples of scenes include Minionville, the Mickey Mouse Club, Old West, Enchanted Forest, and Grinchville, to name a few.
He encourages those looking for pandemic-friendly entertainment this season to drive through the display.
“We don’t put up anything for display that you can’t see from inside a vehicle," said Nuxoll.
All the displays will be up by Thanksgiving and will be left up until New Year’s Day.