One Fort Mitchell street lined up a battalion of blow-up Santas, now over 50 Fort Mitchell streets are locked in a playful turf war of towering Nutcrackers and supersized Grinches, as the city’s “Inflatable Wars” kick off.
Beechwood Road was the trend setter for this idea. The street’s residents all displayed blow-up Santas on their lawns last year in support of Beechwood Independent’s Santafest. That became a topic of discussion on the Fort Mitchell neighborhood page on Facebook, and it was then that Fort Mitchell resident Lynette Colosimo got an idea.
Why not have the entire city participate?
“I’m like, you know what Pleasant Ridge is going to throw down the gauntlet,” Colosimo said. “We’ll match your Santas and raise you, our inflatables. Then the other streets are going, ‘we want to do it.’”
Colosimo then solicited the help of a volunteer from each street to disseminate information to their neighbors and decide which character they wanted to feature. Participation is totally voluntary, and it is not meant to be a competition, though Colosimo is calling the idea “Fight in the Fort Inflatable Wars.”
“It’s just going to be something fun to kind of bring the city together, instead of Christmas lights, people can go down and see the inflatables on every street, if they choose,” Colosimo said.
Fort Mitchell resident Lori Evans, who also lives on Pleasant Ridge, is participating in the inflatable war. She said the idea has been a fun topic of conversation among neighbors. Over the weekend, Evans said she was outside raking leaves when two of her neighbors from the street over on Superior asked her if she had heard about the inflatables, and then they shared their themes.
“They were saying, ‘You guys got nutcrackers?’ And I go, ‘Yes, we did. What’s your thing?’ And they go, ‘The Grinch.’ I’m like, ‘wow, that’s a good one.’ They’re like, ‘You think?’ Because now people are having an opinion about which blow-up they have to have. I go, ‘Well, girls, let’s go, let’s get it ordered.’”
Evans, who has the nutcracker theme, said she saw the 6-foot nutcracker and said no, they had to go 8-foot. Meanwhile, Evans said her neighbor ordered a 14-foot nutcracker.
“Now you’re getting kind of picky about what Nutcracker is in your front yard, as you would with anything, it’s like picking out a Christmas tree,” Evans said. “But yeah, it’s been fun.”
Evans said she and her husband had already started driving the streets to see what blow-ups everyone has out.
Colosimo said the goal is for everyone to have their blow-up, out and inflated by the city’s annual “Fa-La-La in the Fort” on Dec. 7.
“It’s very whimsical, and not crazy expensive to do,” Evans said. “This is my first inflatable. It took all but five minutes to put up. It’s super easy, and it’s really cute.”
Here is the list of participating streets and their themes:
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