It’s the end of an era.
The Scott family will say “goodbye, goodbye, goodbye” to the Naperville Swiftmas House at 1228 Atlas Lane at the end of this holiday season.
But for now, fans can “hold on to the memories” and visit the Swiftmas House one last time.
The ‘Mastermind’ behind the Swiftmas House
Two years ago, Swiftmas House owner Amy Scott thought up the Taylor Swift lights display theme after watching the Eras Tour movie with her friends. Her family was immediately on board.
“When I was a kid, my parents had always done big Christmas light displays,” Amy’s husband, Brian Scott, said. “When we moved here in 2008, we started doing Christmas lights. [Amy’s] like, ‘What if we did Taylor?’ So I went to the movie with her, and we took a bunch of notes. And that’s kind of where it all started.”
This year’s colorful display features new albums, including Swift’s most recent release, “The Life of a Showgirl.” Swift’s fiancée, Travis Kelce, also returns in a photo from the couple’s engagement earlier this year.
“We wanted to represent three eras that we previously had not done,” said Amy. “And so all the way over at the left, we have our Lover Era, followed by Midnights, and then closest to us is Life of a Showgirl.”
Brian and Amy own a printing business, so the family makes their own signs and displays. Lyrics are printed on signs around the Smith family’s lawn with cardboard cutouts of the artist. The family also reused the Folklore house from last year’s display to create the Lover house.
“My favorite part is the Opalite sign. I had an idea of how to display that, and I made a sign that actually has the lightning strikes cut out of it, and there’s flashing lights behind it,” Brian said.
“I like Taylor,” Amy said. “I just lay her down and Gorilla Glue her and all the different colors of purples, and then I added some extra jewels this year.”
Helping out the Little Friends ‘Wi$h Li$t’
When the Swiftmas display gained popularity in its first year, a neighbor suggested the family direct the attention toward a good cause.
“We have supported Little Friends for years. I think we’ve raised $35,000 over the last two years. We’re hoping to just raise as much as we can for Little Friends in Naperville, so we have QR codes around the yard so that people can just take a quick picture of the QR code and donate,” Amy said.
‘Saying goodbye’ to Swiftmas ‘is death by a thousand cuts’
Though they’ve enjoyed the decorations, “everything has changed.” With their two daughters now out of the house, Brian and Amy have found it hard to keep up with the Taylor Swift theme.
“We just thought we’ve done all of the eras now, at least 11 of them, or something like that, that’s probably a good time to stop. We’ll probably go back to doing something, but maybe not quite so grandiose,” Brian said.
But they said they’ll always “remember this moment” of the Taylor theme fondly.
“The reason why we do this is really just to spread happiness and cheer, and love to our community,” Amy said. “We just need a little bit more brightness, and it’s our way of contributing some of that light into the community. And so that’s what we hope people walk away after seeing this, you know, we just hope that they have a renewed sense of joy.”
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