ALEDO, Ill. — An Aledo man is taking the Christmas spirit to the next level. His entire garage is filled with Christmas villages, part of his way of spreading joy to his community.
About two decades ago, Hal Earl and his family put out their first miniature village. His collection has only grown from there, stacked full on shelves in his garage.
"I haven't counted them," Hal said. "I tried one time, and I lost count because some of the little ones, do you count that? Do you not count that?"
His collection includes just about anything you can imagine, from a ski resort to a bridal shop to elves carrying beer steins at a brewery. There's also an entire corner dedicated to Santa. The carnival rides are one of the most popular, including a favorite of his wife Linda's, although she jokes it'd be nice to instead keep her car in the garage away from the snow during the winter. She picked out many of the Santa's and even made a "Hal's Winter Wonderland" sign for the collection.
"It's a fun thing we do together," Linda said. "I don't need to buy him anything. I go with him to Goodwill, or a lot of friends have given him a lot of them too. When they hear he has a big collection, they say, 'Oh, I've got houses. Can I give them to you?'"
Hal used to box up all the figurines, but decided it took way too long. His daughter suggested he keep them on the garage shelves year round and just pull a curtain over them. Soon he'll have to add more shelves.
He likes to invite family, friends and neighbors over to explore the villages.
"I had one gal came over here last year, the year before, and was going through a rough time in her life, and after going through here, she said it just changed her life. And that makes it all worth it," Hal said. "That's why we do it. Joy, joy, joy. Everybody that comes in here, you don't come out of here without a little joy in your heart."
