The Story Behind Ridgefield's Holiday Sparkle

The holiday elves are busy at work today stringing lights on the trees lining Main Street...it won't be long now. Ridgefield will sparkle the evening after Thanksgiving, Friday, November 27. Holiday music will resonate through town beginning at 6:00 pm and the switch will be flipped at 6:30. Tradition has it that Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive via Fire Truck to greet towns-people. 

The story behind Ridgefield's holiday lights was featured several years ago in Ridgefield Magazine. I had the pleasure of interviewing one of the pioneers responsible for making Ridgefield merry and bright - Bill Craig, the owner of Craig's Fine Jewelry.

Bill Craig reminisced about how it all began- about 40 years ago. "The trees were little and you could climb them, Eddie Allen and I put up the holiday lights."

Craig once used his jewelry store on Main Street as light-bulb checking headquarters, but that was when 4,000 lights adorned the small trees. Now that a whooping 16,000 bulbs light up Main Street, Craig and a crew of enthusiastic volunteers meet in larger quarters, carefully laying out each strand of bulbs to make sure they are in working order. "The trees just got so big, we needed more lights and a bucket truck," says CL&P employee Gordie Knapp, who has been helping Craig with the lights for more than a decade.

The annual bulb checking headquarters has been at Ridgefield Auto Upholstery on Danbury Road for more than a decade, a store owned by town resident and friend of both Craig and Knapp, Dave Palmer. "It's a non-structured event," declares Palmer. "You just show up," he adds. And since folks have been "showing up", the event has turned into an occasion to party.  "It's a very eclectic group- this is old time Ridgefield, it's really kind of fun," says Knapp.

Thanks to some sparkling volunteers, the bulbs have all been tested and are now beginning to adorn our trees.

The season of giving is upon us, should you want to donate to Ridgefield's Holiday Trust Fund, please send donations to: Holiday Trust Fund, Town Hall, 400 Main Street.