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The ladder wobbled 40 feet in the air as Colin DeJoy, a Swampscott firefighter, gripped an eight-foot wreath and tried to steady himself against the wind. Below, his sister-in-law Emily DeJoy and her husband Joe watched in horror while text messages from Colin’s mother flooded Emily’s phone: “What are you doing?”
Welcome to Christmas on Riverside Drive, where the holiday spirit runs so deep that new neighbors receive gifts of lights before they’ve even moved in, where residents coordinate power circuits like electricians and where letting your house go dark is simply not an option.
For more than 30 years, this small street has transformed itself into one of Marblehead’s most dazzling holiday displays. What began as a playful rivalry between two neighbors has evolved into a multi-generational tradition that draws nightly processions of cars, nursing home buses and antique car parades.
“My poor brother in law,” DeJoy said, recalling the windswept installation. “We were like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ He was trying to carry this massive wreath, way bigger than up the ladder.”
Randolph Stark hadn’t even moved into his house when David Hamilton showed up with strings of Christmas lights and an unspoken message: your home cannot go dark.
Stark had bought the house in November but wouldn’t move in until May. No matter. Hamilton, the Riverside Drive’s self-appointed “Chairman of the Cord,” wasn’t about to let a technicality break the street’s most sacred tradition. He arranged for Stark’s father-in-law to hang the lights while the family was still living in New York City.
“We didn’t know such a tradition existed,” Stark said. “We weren’t even living here.”
Residents speak about the tradition with a mixture of pride and mock exhaustion, acknowledging the absurdity of their commitment while making clear they wouldn’t dream of stopping.
“Every year I’m just like, ‘I’m not doing this again,’” Stark said. “And then I run into someone, and they’re like, ‘my mother, before she passed, I would bring her down your street every year. And I still do that with my kids.” He added, “And then to myself I’m like, ‘All right, I guess I’m doing it this year.’”
The chairman of the cord
The tradition began three decades ago with Hamilton and Bob Dunham, DeJoy’s father, who lived next door and shared a competitive streak. The two men would jab at each other constantly about their displays, playing cribbage for bragging rights and steadily escalating their decorations from simple lights to elaborate displays requiring professional-grade equipment.
“It was just a fun little competition about who could sort of outdo the other,” Hamilton said. “And then we started to give the poke to some of our other neighbors, like, ‘Come on, goodness, let’s get with the program here.’”
Hamilton established himself as the chronicler and unofficial commissioner of the competition, producing occasional memorandums that offered playful commentary on each family’s efforts while establishing guidelines for participation. In a 2023 memo, Hamilton welcomed “rookies” Emily and Joe DeJoy and another family while noting “jump starts” by several families who began decorating before the official Black Friday kickoff time of 12:01 a.m.
A 2020 memo awarded Scott Finch the “Overall Excellence Award” while giving another the “Designer’s Award” for his red and white color scheme. But Hamilton made clear this wasn’t casual participation.
“Keep in mind, the Riverside and Yorkshire Christmas Light Tradition is NOT a participation trophy event,” Hamilton wrote. “So undoubtably some of you may be upset … The Chairman’s wisdom I offer you … suck it up … “
The tradition has evolved as the founding generation has aged. Hamilton and Dunham eventually conceded defeat to Finch, acknowledging they no longer had the energy or storage space to compete.
“I don’t have the storage space to keep all the stuff,” Hamilton said. “My garage is already a mess.”
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The original rule requiring everyone to wait until the Friday after Thanksgiving has also relaxed. As residents have gotten older, they’ve started putting up lights on any warm November day rather than risk working in the cold.
But if the timing has become more flexible, the expectations have only intensified. DeJoy, part of what Hamilton calls the millennial generation taking over the street, says the pressure to excel is real.
“Randolph is the second newest family, and he has felt the pressure from the second he moved in,” DeJoy said. Stark has been on the street for 10 years, making him still the second-newest resident.
The economics of enchantment
The switch from incandescent to LED lights revolutionized the street’s capabilities while presenting new financial calculations. The investment adds up quickly. Stark estimates he spent $1,200 on lights this year alone, and that doesn’t include all his lights, just the new ones. DeJoy paid $1,600 to have professionals install lights on her roofline.
“My anniversary gift this year was the lights on the roof,” DeJoy said.
The scale requires serious electrical planning. Stark uses three or four power circuits and has close to 80 strands of lights. Hamilton has hired electricians over the years to add circuits.
“I spend more time planning my power than, well, almost as much as I do hanging,” Stark said.
Individual styles have emerged within the unified display. DeJoy favors an all-white aesthetic, a departure from her father’s colorful lights. Greg Dana’s light hanging is meticulous.
“He’s neat as a pin,” Hamilton said. “It’s almost like, does he have a level?”
DeJoy’s decorations include floor-model reindeer she convinced Home Depot to sell her. She has seven Christmas trees inside her house.
Hamilton has a light-sensitive elf in his front yard that scissors its legs when cars pass, delighting and slightly frightening his grandchildren.
The tradition has become about more than competition. It has evolved into a neighborhood identity and a gift to the broader community. Residents say the most common question they receive is who they hire to install the lights, a question that always prompts laughter because every family does its own work.
Stark regularly encounters people who tell him visiting Riverside’s lights is part of their annual tradition. Hamilton’s daughter, now 36, recently stopped by with her children. Ocean Breeze kindergarten classes visit each year for a Cookie Monster truck event that Hamilton hosts.
“We’ll have the nursing home busses,” Hamilton said. “We’ll have the old car parade.”
The traffic is constant. DeJoy says if it’s dark outside, there’s a steady train of cars driving through. The lights stay on until 11 or 11:30 p.m.
Stark used to wrap the lamppost on the corner of Riverside and Yorkshire like a candy cane with perfectly aligned white lights, requiring a very tall ladder and meticulous work. But someone who “may have had too much eggnog” backed into the fiberglass post one Christmas and broke it. The town patched it but didn’t replace it, and the post no longer has the structural integrity to support a ladder safely.
When the lights mean more
The street has also used its lights to honor community members during difficult times. When Cathy Nash, a beloved former resident, died, neighbors lit trees and bushes in her favorite color, green, and Hamilton later sent photos to her husband, Matt, after he relocated to North Carolina.
A few years later, they changed their palette again for Sophia Smith, a young Marblehead girl battling a rare form of cancer. As blue ribbons appeared on trees, mailboxes and fences across town during the “Arms Around Sophia” effort, Riverside joined in by swapping out its usual colors for blue lights.
“If something impacts the community, we’ll step in,” DeJoy said. “I think majority of us do it for the community.”
The camaraderie extends to the families themselves. When the neighborhood was younger and full of children roughly the same age, residents did everything together: block parties, wiffle ball games, Christmas celebrations.
“Very family oriented neighborhood,” DeJoy said.
“The one thing that seems to have stuck is just Christmas,” Hamilton said. “It is a bit more individual you don’t have to coordinate with, you know, three other families or eight other people.”
The tradition shows no signs of fading, though Hamilton acknowledges the physical toll. He’s in his 60s, and his golf buddies give him grief about still climbing ladders.
“I was up on the ladder, actually, two ladders, just yesterday, putting up the last wreath and the last garland, and they’re like, ‘You’re nuts,’” Hamilton said. “And so I think about it. And every once in a while, I’ll send a signal to my wife, you know, she’s like, ‘No way more next year.’”
DeJoy and Stark, representing the next generation, are still trying to add to their displays each year. DeJoy tries to get “one big thing at least per year” and starts planning about two weeks before Thanksgiving.
Despite the work, the expense and the occasional ladder-related terror, residents speak about the tradition with genuine warmth. Hamilton describes it as representing “tradition and community,” while DeJoy says she “can’t think of anything worse” than the lights going dark.
“The Christmas cheer,” Hamilton said when asked what would be lost. “That would be a dark day.”
Hamilton remains proud of what the neighborhood has built together.
“It’s officially been 30 years for us,” Hamilton wrote in his 2023 memo. “Be careful on the ladders — and lets celebrate another season — we’re doing the last fine tuning — but from my POV — Riverside is OPEN for Xmas!! God Bless You Every One! Proud of all!!”
The street is indeed open, drawing visitors throughout December and reminding everyone who passes through that some traditions are worth the effort, the expense and even the occasional wobble on a 40-foot ladder.
