A father's last Christmas display is lit 24 hours after he died
The family has been setting up elaborate light displays for over four decades
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This is definitely one situation where it’s OK to put up Christmas decorations a little early.
A family continued a four-decade-long tradition and turned on their grandfather’s elaborate Christmas display on Saturday. This year’s holiday, however, will be bittersweet, as the family’s patriarch passed away 24 hours before the lights were turned on.
Dave Edwards’ family decided to still hold the annual switch-on event, which has reportedly drawn hundreds of people in past years. (SWNS)
For the last 42 years, Dave Edwards has put up elaborate Christmas displays around his house in Croxley Green in England and became a local celebrity, Southwest News Service (SWNS) reports. Sadly, Edwards was recently diagnosed with bowel cancer and reportedly passed away on Friday night.
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“It was a really difficult day,” his daughter Sharon Markham told SWNS. “I was so numb and am in shock still, which is probably what got me through it all. My dad was such an amazing man, the community has been devastated and the tributes that have been flooding in are just breathtaking.”
Edwards’ family decided to still hold the annual switch-on event, which has reportedly drawn hundreds of people in past years. This year’s event was apparently scaled back due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, although it was streamed online.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This year’s lighting event was apparently scaled back due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, although it was streamed online. (SWNS)
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"We had a 9-foot Christmas tree donated and people have been queuing for three days to hang ornaments on it -- there's been so many that we've had to decorate other trees on the lawn and hang some from above the driveway, too,” Markham explained. “Dad never got to see the tree, but we did tell him about it and he said it was 'marvelous.' He could hear people queuing outside so he still felt a part of it.”
The family has used the attention that the Christmas displays have garnered to help raise money for charities, homeless shelters, and food banks. (SWNS)
She continued, “I know how much this all would have meant to him. He really was a true hero. Heaven has gained an angel and now he's back with my mom, Mrs. Christmas, and they can begin lighting up Heaven together.”
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The family has used the attention that the Christmas displays have garnered to help raise money for charities, homeless shelters, and food banks.