Editor’s note: This is the first of a series highlighting some of the Northwest Indiana’s most decorative homes during the Christmas season.
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Daniel Werner has spent most of his life attracted to ornate Christmas lights and decorations that adorned homes during the holiday season. As a young boy, Werner, along with his three siblings would pile into their parents’ 1970 Chevy Caprice Station Wagon with the simulated wood grain exterior driving around the south suburbs of Chicago marveling at Christmas lights.
“We were like the Griswolds,” Werner said, referring to actor Chevy Chase’s family in the “Vacation” films. “It was a special time for us. We would go get hot chocolate, drive around for hours and look at Christmas lights.”
Nearly three decades after his family’s annual road trips to view Christmas lights, Werner, 37, is now intent on spreading holiday cheer with his elaborate Christmas display “Werner’s Christmas Wonderland.”
“It’s to bring cheer, excitement and spread the holiday spirit,” he said. “People can get in their car and go look at Christmas lights and share memories.”
Werner, who is single, is able to spend three weeks meticulously arranging his Christmas display at his home at 9108 Morton St., Merrillville, to his satisfaction. After working as a construction worker installing insulation for several years, Werner has creates handmade decorations for his display.
His yard is teeming with lights and handmade decorations including a Ferris wheel, two giant Nutcrackers and lights that spell “Merry Christmas” on his roof.
Werner’s Christmas Wonderland attracts people from across the region and he’s grown accustomed to strangers driving by his home and children walking on the sidewalk gazing at his exhibition, he said.
“I say it’s like a revolving door because there’s always a car coming by or someone walking on the sidewalk,” Werner said. “I’ll look out the window and see kids saying ‘wow that’s cool.’ Parents are thanking me as well. They’re very appreciative of what I do and that gives me the motivation to do it every year.”
Ultimately, Werner said he hopes to rejuvenate a tradition he believes has faded over the last decade.
“The reason I do it is to pay it forward,” he said. “You want to pay it forward to the younger generation. You want to spark something. Maybe these younger kids would actually start doing it and do what I’m doing to pass it off to future generations because it’s a dying breed.”
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