Santa Claus will be sure to notice Wildwood this Christmas, thanks to a beautiful and festive star handcrafted by local residents.
Every year on Christmas Eve, a group of local fathers and their children haul the star, along with a generator, up to a top-secret mountain location where the party lights a campfire, feasts on hotdogs and roasts marshmallows. The group then hooks a string of lights stapled onto the star to the generator, illuminating the night sky for all the neighbourhood to see.
As Wildwood resident Tom Bird explained, the lights help Santa to see where to land as he makes his rounds.
“It was all for the kids,” said Tom. “The idea was to give the moms the chance to finish wrapping the Christmas presents while we were up on the mountain.”
The tradition began in 1986, when the late Bob Stutt first built the star using sticks and poles gathered from the surrounding forest. Although the structure requires some light maintenance, the star, which is held together with binder twine, has remained largely intact since the tradition began.
The original group (Bob Stutt, Pete Bird, and Jim “Pal” Brown) has grown in size over the years, with fathers and their children from across the neighbourhood making the trek each year.
“We started with three, and the group has now grown to 33 or 43,” said Tom.
The tradition has also been marked by one or two particularly special years.
In December 2014, Stutt reached his 100th birthday, and, according to Tom, decided he wanted to ride in a helicopter.
“The helicopter company heard he had turned 100 and said they wanted to give him a ride for free,” explained Tom, “so he and my brother [Pete] decided to play Santa Claus.”
In full Father Christmas regalia, Stutt and Pete hovered above the star in the chopper and threw candy down to the children waiting below.
“That was a pretty neat day,” reflected Tom. “I don’t think we’ll be able to top that stunt.”
Spanning decades, the tradition has become an important part of the neighbourhood’s Christmas festivities.
“Some of the kids, we used to hold their hands walking up the mountain,” said Tom, “now they’re grown up and helping us haul the generator.”
The star goes up on Christmas Eve and typically gets lit up again on Christmas Day and Boxing Day; the generator provides enough electricity for about four hours. However, in recent years, some members of the group have refuelled the generator and kept the star glowing all the way through to New Year’s Day.
“I went up there to refuel it one night, and I was listening to wolves howling.” recalled Tom.
The star will be visible in Wildwood on Christmas Eve, for all who know where to look.
