92-year-old Iowa woman’s Christmas display lights up the night

SWISHER - As she does every year, Hazel Schropp began putting up her outdoor Christmas decorations just after Halloween this year. Her goal is always to finish by the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

At 92 years old, the task seems monumental, especially given the wonderland of displays - everything from Nativity scenes and lighted trees to reindeer, Santas and snowmen - that adorn Schropp's yard at 2629 120th St. NW, near the intersection of Highway 965 between Swisher and Shueyville.

But then, you don't know Hazel Schropp.

'I'm a farmer's wife,” she says, explaining her work ethic and determination to get those lights up each year. 'I did get help one day this year ... for a couple hours.”

Approaching her front door, one is greeted by two toy soldiers, two angels, a couple lighted candles, a few wreaths, two candy canes, a nativity scene, a holiday Ferris wheel and a piece showing Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus.

And that's just the front door display.

Extension cords run all around the yard of the home, providing power to strands of colorful lights, three wise men on camels, a family of a dozen snowmen, a lane of lighted peppermints and a sleigh being pulled by nine reindeer.

When the sun goes down, Schropp's yard lights up the night.

'My electric bill is about $500 a month when I have the lights on,” said Schropp. 'But I have electric heat, too.”

Schropp said she has lived in the house since 1959, moving there with her husband Walter after living in the farm house next door for more than 10 years.

The couple married in 1944 and after Walter served for a brief time in the U.S. Army, they returned to Iowa to begin a life of farming. Over the years, they raised hogs, milk cows, cattle and feeder pigs, as well as corn, soybeans and hay. Most of the farm's 240 acres are now in the state's Conservation Reserve Program, while other acres are rented out, Schropp said.

Walter Schropp died in 2012 at age 92.

Hazel Schropp said he always enjoyed the Christmas lights, though he was usually too busy farming to help put them up. That job was left to her.

The couple raised six children - girls Judy Bracy, Joyce Sirowy and Debbie Takes and boys Gary, Jerry and Rick - all of whom remain with their families in Iowa.

'There are 70 of us now,” Hazel Schropp says proudly, explaining she has 21 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. 'I have six or seven Christmases.”

As for her lighting display, Schropp says nothing is particularly old and she doesn't really have a favorite, though she has an affection for Nativity displays, including one tucked under her porch and another that sits on a hay wagon in the yard.

A couple times each year, she'll get a knock on the door, like she did last week, from a passer-by asking to have a closer look.

And when the holiday season ends, Schropp says she'll start taking the lights down a little at a time.

'I turn them off after New Year's,' she said. 'Last year I had some help; it was my Christmas present from someone.”