Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
CHRISTMAS COMES EARLY WITH DISPLAY OF LIGHTS
Electric bill is high, but so is East Bradford man’s holiday spirit
EAST BRADFORD >> If there is Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Elmo and Big Bird, Mighty Mouse and a snowman, it must be Christmas time at the Corrado house on Nobb Hill Road.
For more than 13 years, Jerry Corrado has transformed the front yard of his two-acre property, with almost every square inch of grass covered with inflatables and lights, into a winter wonderland.
The Corrados’ electric bill goes up $500 during December and this year Corrado spent seven weeks connecting thousands of Christmas lights to 500 extension cords.
Corrado has been in remission for a year with APML Leukemia, the rarest form of Leukemia. Neighbors have pitched in more than usual the past couple of years to help out with the display that might even be visible from space.
On the weekends, Corrado dresses up as Santa and last year gave out 1,500 candy canes.
But there’s a purpose and the lights are more than just a feast of the eyes for those who line up on Nobb Hill Drive.
No kid likes to be in the hospital, especially during Christmastime, but Corrado makes sure that hospitalized children can pick out a toy a day from a huge pile.
Through last year’s toy
drive, the Corrado Family donated 1,615 toys to the Chester County Hospital pediatric unit and emergency room.
“I like to see everybody get together, especially the kids,” Corrado said. “This is good for my health.”
Corrado officially flicks the switch Thanksgiving night and the show runs into the first week of January.
The display and toy drive began when daughter Amanda Morgera worked at the Chester County Hospital. That first year, 275 toys were collected and since then Corrado has become a regular, seasonal shopper for Christmas goods at Lowe’s, Home Depot and Sears.
“He’s like a kid in a toy story,” wife Joan Corrado said. “He can buy one thing every week.”
The planning starts when the weather turns hotter. Although Corrado said people often ask him if he uses a diagram, he does not.
“In June he starts planning for what he’s going to
“I like to see everybody get together, especially the kids. This is good for my health.”
— Jerry Corrado
do,” Joan Corrado said.
“It makes me feel young,” neighbor Barb Gallagher said.
Neighbor Dick Jenkins said the display lights up the whole neighborhood.
Jennifer Gosney said the display brings “so much joy” and her husband Evan Gosney said it gets him “into the spirit.”
Elena Pentz said the Corrado lights “fill me with joy.”
Neighbor John Gallagher said the lights “brighten up the whole neighborhood.”
Every three months, Corrado gets checked out by the physicians at University of Pennsylvania Hospital. Last week he got a clean bill of health and the doctors told “Santa” that the cancer is still in remission.
A more than two month hospitalization and 11 months of chemotherapy added to Corrado’s load, but his wife will tell you that when showing off his lights, he still smiles like “that kid in a toy store.”
Nobb Hill Drive is located north of the intersection of Route 322 and the Route 322 Bypass on Route 322. Take a right on Copeland School Road, the first right turn after the bypass intersection when headed toward Downingtown. Nobb Hill Drive is on the right, after about two miles on Copeland School Road.