January 11, 2025
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Herscher neighborhood lights up

By Lee Provost
Savannah Phillips, 9, of Key West, Fla., looks up in awe as she and her cousin, Tessa Papineau, 7, of Herscher, walk through a light tunnel on Monday night on North Leiser Street in Herscher. Over a dozen neighbors along the entire street adorn their homes in the glowing decor for the holiday season.

Savannah Phillips, 9, of Key West, Fla., looks up in awe as she and her cousin, Tessa Papineau, 7, of Herscher, walk through a light tunnel on Monday night on North Leiser Street in Herscher. Over a dozen neighbors along the entire street adorn their homes in the glowing decor for the holiday season. (Tiffany Blanchette)

Clark Griswold, of the National Lampoon’s “Christmas Vacation” fame, has nothing on the residents of Leiser Street in Herscher.

Some 15 or so property owners in the north Herscher neighborhood go all-in when it comes to Christmas holiday decorations, a tradition started several years ago by resident Dave Ruder, of Kankakee’s Ruder Electric.

He started by going perhaps somewhat over the top at his dwelling, and then it spread.

Neighbors picked up on the concept. Strings of lights began crossing the street, and the neighbors now annually host the Lighting of Leiser — the day after Thanksgiving — as the official kickoff of turning on the holiday lights.

“It just keeps on growing,” Ruder explained earlier this week regarding the glowing Herscher neighborhood. “It’s a great deal. It’s pretty much everybody on the street now.”

It has become an attraction.

People seeking to soak up the holiday experience or those who are just curious slowing drive through this two-block area and take it all in

One resident, Andy Cotter, who has participated in the holiday tradition for several years, is not sure if the rest of the village has enough electricity to operate their homes once the Leiser neighborhoods turns on their display.

“It’s cool,” the 50-year-old Cotter said. “The kids give me a hard time about it.”

Cotter simply enjoys standing at a window and watching the slow-moving vehicles drive through and soak of the light display. It makes him feel good.

“We didn’t do this for us, but we do it for the people who come by,” he said. “If no one came by, it wouldn’t be nearly as fun.”

The lighting event has turned into a neighborhood party. People gather in various driveways and share food as well as hot and cold drinks.

This type of community, after all, is what the holidays are truly about.

The decorations will soon be coming down. The displays are typically dismantled before the calendar flips to the new year.

“It’s sad when the lights come down,” Cotter said. “It become just another dark neighborhood.”

Perhaps the only entity more depressed to see the lights unplug is ComEd.

But aside from a jolt to neighbor’s electricity bills, it’s all worth it, Ruder said.

“Everybody kicks in,” he said. “Everybody enjoys it.”

https://daily-journal.com/news/local/herscher/herscher-neighborhood-lights-up/article_20c518c0-c20b-11ef-ba8f-0b1e02193745.html