Dakota County
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Tribune
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Farmington • Rosemount
DakotaCountyTribune.com
Dec. 20, 2018 • Volume 133 • Number 42
Established 1887
Lighting up the block ‘Toyland’ holiday display attracts Farmington families by Jody Peters SUN THISWEEK DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE
There are people who put Christmas lights up, and then there’s Guy Kinney. Kinney’s property off Upper 182nd Street West in Farmington is filled with about 220 blow mold decorations in the yard and about 52 on the roof, not to mention the lights adorning the trees and the house. It’s little surprise that the display attracts attention. Kinney’s wife Michele said there’s “a steady flow of cars,” especially during weekend evenings. But Kinney is fine with that. The whole goal of the display is to spread Christmas cheer — something Kinney certainly isn’t lacking. Wearing a T-shirt from the movie “Elf,” Kinney explains that his enthusiasm for Christmas started when he was a child. Growing up in St. Paul, he would visit Christmas displays but said he “thought I’d never be able to be one of those folks that did it.” After he and Michele bought their Farmington home in 1986, they put a large Santa face on the front of the house for Christmas. From there, they added on decorations each year. The full yard display has been around for about 20 years, Kinney estimates. He said he tries to change or add one or two things each year to switch up the display a little. Longtime visitors to the house expect this and try to spot what’s new, he said. Most people enjoy the display, he added, and people have dropped off Christmas cards, candy canes and sometimes more lights or blow molds. But there have been a couple of incidents, Kinney said. He used to have some G-scale trains running outside, but they were stolen. Since then, he’s added security cameras.
Photo by Jody Peters
Guy and Michele Kinney stand outside of their “Toyland” house. Guy Kinney has adorned his Farmington home with Christmas decorations for the past 20 years or so. Each year, he also puts up a fence bordering the display to discourage trespassing. With so many cords in the yard, trespassing is more a safety issue than anything, he said. Putting the decorations up is a fulltime hobby. Kinney does the majority of the work himself. Once Halloween is over, he starts putting up Christmas décor Nov. 1.
During the month of November, he typically takes Wednesdays and Thursdays off work so he has extra time to create the display and test if everything’s working properly. Usually he has the display finished by Thanksgiving weekend and it stays up until New Year’s Day. But throughout the year, Kinney works on things like rewiring, hunting down sales or checking for ideas online.
“It’s not just November-December, it’s 365,” Kinney said. It’s hard to pick a favorite decoration, but Kinney said “the best investment of the whole thing” is his Toyland sign that sits on the roof. While he was shopping at Fleet Farm, the store was switching out an old sign for a new one. Kinney offered to buy See Toyland, 18A
Seasons’s Eating’s
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9.5-10 oz.
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Our Family Butter
Halos Clementines
12 Packs
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10.00
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Specials good through 12-24-18.
Family Fresh Market, 115 Elm St. Farmington 651-463-3404 • www.FamilyFreshMarket.com
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Dakota County Tribune 4A 14A
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20A
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21A
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