A traumatic injury and a love for Christmas inspires one man from Kaukauna to give back.
"I'm actually out of room! I tell my neighbors if they want to sell me their house, I can take it down and just expand,” said Troy Campbell.
Thousands of Christmas lights in sync with each other and decorations made by hand fill Campbell’s yard each year. It's his way of giving back after a drunk driver nearly took his life.
"Looking at other people in that hospital, children's hospital and that, who were in a lot worse shape than us, I said, you know what, I want to make a difference and I'm going to provide them with the, what they need at the holidays, so it kind of springloaded after that,” Campbell said.
The focus is kids, especially ones like his, with disabilities.
"I see children come here every year that are disabled, who are shunned by other children their age, so we want to make sure that when they come here, they do not feel like their left out because many of the children haven't even been invited to birthday parties,” Campbell said.
The price to see Santa is only a smile.
"We want to provide an experience where pictures with Santa is free, come into the display is free, the only thing we ask is to have a nice time,” Campbell said.
About 7,000 visitors come to Campbell’s house each weekend. Interacting with them has become a family tradition.
"When I'm just standing around, I see all of the kid's face, their expression, the parents expression of everything we do here, it just brings us so much joy to everybody,” said son-in-law, Robert Schmidt.
It's all for a tradition that this family says will live in Northeast Wisconsin forever.
"I don't do this because I have to, I do this because I want to,” Campbell said.
"I'll be continuing after he's gone, I'll be continuing the tradition for us all,” Schmidt said.
