JERSEYVILLE - Tonight will be a historic one in the Lincoln Avenue neighborhood in Jerseyville as Una Dunsing, her son, and grandson, turn off the huge Christmas lights display for the final time.
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Nicknamed “The Christmas People,” Una and her now late husband, Richard, have had the enormous neighborhood lights display for 26 years consecutively. Richard died in October and the family has decided they would do the lights one more time, but as of tonight, the run will end.
This year, Una, her son and grandson put $25,000 lights out in memory of Richard. Richard loved the display and to some he was nicknamed “Mr. Christmas” because he was always visiting yard sales and stores looking for discounted lights after Christmas to make his display bigger and better each year.
In the yard, there was a tribute to Richard that was moving to those who dropped by and could see it. The home is located in the 400 block of Lincoln in Jerseyville.
Robert Dunsing, Una's son, said he is glad his parents did the light display all those years.
“Everybody here in town has loved it,” he said. “She can’t continue to do it by herself. It will be bad it is coming to a close but we thought long and hard this year about not doing it after everything that happened but we decided to do it one final time.”
Robert said his father was always extremely happy and jolly during the holiday season. “He loved Christmas and doing the lights,” Robert said. “He just kept buying lights and making it bigger and bigger each year.”
Robert was part of the Winchester move to Oxford, Miss., and his mom didn’t think he was coming home for Christmas but Christmas Eve morning he surprised her with his son and made it to celebrate the holiday. Robert knew it would mean a lot to his mom for them to be there and he wanted to see the lights display one final time.
“We don’t feel that much Christmas spirit this year, but at least we will be celebrating it all together,” he said. “I am so proud of my mom and dad doing the lights all those years.”
Una Dunsing said she will be sad when the lights go off for the final time tonight, but she knows Richard would be proud of what they did.
She said her husband loved everyone and always put everybody else ahead of himself.
Asked what her husband what message her husband would provide today, she said: “He would say always put Jesus first and celebrate the wonderful day.”
