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12/15/2021 04:37 AMFor more than 50 years, Joan Van Epps’s annual holiday displays have delighted folks all along the shoreline. Now, her family is hoping to do one last display that’s “bigger and brighter” than ever.
Some may know Van Epps as the longtime Old Saybrook resident who owns Ragged Rock Marina. But more people might recognize her home at 122 College Street as the white house that comes alive every holiday. Now that she is in her 90s, her granddaughter Shannon Van Epps and her husband have taken it upon themselves to make sure the display continues for at least one more Christmas.
While every holiday is important to Joan Van Epps, Christmas is by far her favorite to decorate for, her granddaughter says. As Van Epps has gotten older, it has become harder for her to do the display. That’s where her family comes in.
“We’ll have the whole outside and inside decorated,” Shannon Van Epps told the Harbor News last week. “After this year, we plan to donate the decorations to Old Saybrook Parks & Recreation in honor of my grandmother.”
Van Epps described her grandmother as a year-round holiday fan.
“She is an amazing woman and has brought joy to so many people when they visit Old Saybrook,” Van Epps said, noting that her grandmother would decorate not just for Christmas, but every holiday.
Van Epps said that every room inside the house had a Christmas tree that stayed up year-round but was decorated for each holiday throughout the year.
“The day after Labor Day it was time for the decorations to come down so that the Halloween decorations can come up,” Van Epps joked.
“She loves making the holidays wonderful for everyone. It’s her absolute passion,” said Van Epps.
So legendary is Joan Van Epps’s love of holiday decorating that tales of her home has been documented for years. Sharon Van Epps said that her grandmother has a scrapbook that features numerous articles about the house being decorated for various holidays. A picture was even included in Diane Smith’s book Christmas in Connecticut.
“People would travel along the shoreline to come see it. We get comments online like, ‘I bring my kids every year’ and things like that. We get a lot of reaction like that,” Van Epps said,
While strangers have their own memories of the house, for Van Epps, the house means years and years of good memories.
“I can’t remember a Christmas eve night or Christmas morning that wasn’t spent in her house,” said Van Epps.
For Van Epps, the chance to honor her grandmother’s passion for the holidays one last time was a chance she couldn’t miss and one she takes great joy in being able to do.
“My husband and I plan to go above and beyond to honor her and really go all out to light it up and really reflect her true holiday spirit, even though she’s not able to do so this year,” sad Van Epps.
“I saw my grandmother almost every day growing up. She was so kind, nonjudgmental, and loving. She’s everything a typical grandmother is supposed to be but to a magnitude [of] about 500 million,” said Van Epps.