Two giant, glittering reindeer on Olive Road in Homewood are turning heads as they tower over the lawn of Ray and Deb Majewski.
livened up the holiday
scenery in the Olive Road
neighborhood with their
giant reindeer. (Photos by
Eric Crump/H-F Chronicle)
It might be common to see decorative rangifer tarandus (reindeer) in lawns this time of year, but it’s rare to spot examples of rangifer giganteus (great big giant reindeer).
Two specimens can be found on Olive Road in Homewood, towering over the lawn of Ray and Deb Majewski. The glittering reindeer look like they could pull a dozen sleighs full of toys all by themselves — except they are made of wood.
Neighbors report seeing cars driving by slowly to get photos of the giant reindeer, Deb said.
The unusual holiday lawn ornaments were Deb’s idea, inspired by similar decorations that she and Ray saw at Brookfield Zoo a few years ago.
“I thought, ‘Now, that’s cool,'” she said. “I remember saying to Ray, ‘That’s something we could do.'”
Deb took photos of the Brookfield Zoo decorations to use as examples. Ray acquired the lumber and put the parts together on the couple’s front lawn in the 1300 block of Olive Road. The legs are each 10 feet high, and the bodies are 12 feet long.
all lit up.
Ray, Deb and a neighbor then walked the pieces upright so they could be attached to each other, creating giant reindeer shapes. They added antlers and holiday light strings to the figures, including a red light for the male reindeer’s nose, a nod to the familiar story, “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
Ray acknowledges the proportions of the reindeer are not quite to scale.
“It’s odd looking, but that adds to the charm of it,” he said.
The couple is known in the Olive Road neighborhood for their creative lawn creations. They started decorating soon after moving to town more than a decade ago when they learned about the popular yard card program, which helps local people create large holiday greeting cards for their lawns.
Deb created a design of her own, which is also on display in front of their home, though she admitted it doesn’t get noticed much with competition from the imposing new additions.