THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY
ABOVE: Sharon and Jim Poshard will be dressing up as Mrs. Claus and Santa in their Holiday Hills neighborhood in Danville this weekend.
DANVILLE — It’s a calling for Jim and Sharon Poshard to serve their community and give back.
“That’s just my happy place. I love doing it,” Sharon said.
The southern Illinois transplants, who have three daughters, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, have lived in the Holiday Hills neighborhood for 32 years.
They recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary and will again be taking on the roles of Santa and Mrs. Claus this weekend with a holiday event at their home.
Neighborhood families are invited to their one-car garage that they’ve converted into a North Pole winter wonderland to take pictures, have some goodies and enjoy the holiday time with their neighbors.
Assisting the Poshards will be a couple other Holiday Hills Neighborhood Association members, including Ruby Swinford.
“This is a holiday event to give back to the community,” Jim said.
Jim, who is a Ward 6 Danville City Council alderman and president of the neighborhood association, gets emotional talking about his passion for being an alderman, his love for the city and neighborhood, with children hollering out “Mr. Poshard,” and how the city has been good to them since they moved here for his job with McLane Midwest.
He enjoys helping others in and out of his ward with issues and treasures the thank-you notes he receives.
He said playing Santa and Mrs. Claus is another way they wanted to do something for their neighborhood.
“I had some friends down home where we came from, and he was an older gentleman, and he at Christmas, he would go out in his neighborhood, and he would just stand and greet people as they came in driving cars, and I always wanted to do something like that,” Jim said about giving back to other people.
“So, my wife and I came up with the idea to just re-do our garage, it’s just a one-car garage.”
Last year was the first time they did it.
They put up canopies and a Christmas backdrop in their garage and dressed up as Santa and Mrs. Claus.
A few other neighborhood association members helped with the candy and things.
It was a lot of fun and refreshing for them, he said, but the night they had it last year there was a downpour of rain.
They had about 30 people stop by last year, with the weather likely hindering more, and they hope for many more this year.
The city mailed out postcards to the Holiday Hills neighborhood about this year’s event, which will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday at 1618 Skyline Drive.
Jim said it takes a couple of days to get the garage ready.
“My wife is a regular decorator, so she does an amazing job,” he said.
Jim said putting on the Santa suit was a little different for him at the start.
He had to get used to the role. He also had to practice his “Ho, Ho, Ho’s.”
He said Sharon makes a perfect Mrs. Claus when her naturally curly hair curls up when it’s wet.
Sharon said she let her curls fall out from under her cap.
They had support last year too from alderwomen Eve Ludwig and Carolyn Wands, and some couples from Second Church of Christ also came.
“Everybody was pretty impressed by what you could turn an old garage into,” Jim said.
Sharon said she purchased a backdrop, someone gave them a chair and they put burlap and the snow on the sides of the garage.
It might not be very elaborate, but Jim said it looked really nice.
“It’s just something that we decided to put on again,” he said.
“I get enjoyment especially out of the kids, you know. They just walk in a place from the dark outside to the lit garage, and they’re like ‘wow.’ And the grow-ups kind of respond the same way, ‘like wow, you’ve done wonders to this old garage.’”
Sharon laughed that the neighbors don’t see what’s on the other side of the curtain in the garage.
“It’s just a passion of ours, our Christmas decorations,” he said.
Sharon said that’s what they’ve always done.
It was nothing to have 20-30 people, with a fire and guitars and church activities during the holidays.
Jim said they love to entertain, and their neighborhood is close knit.
“We’re very fortunate. We’ve got some of the best neighbors…,” he said.
“I’m just so thankful that we’re able to give back to the community. This ain’t much. But sometimes it’s just kind of the little things that people remember and that they love and enjoy and respect.”
Jim said he anticipates 2025 being a really good year, and he hopes to see the neighborhood association grow.
“We’re just trying to grow and make Holiday Hills a better area,” Sharon said.
They’ll plant flowers, pick up trash and have other neighborhood events.
Having the “Garage Santa” draws people together and they get to know each other better, Sharon and Jim added.
In addition to Saturday, the Poshards will make another appearance as Santa and Mrs. Claus at the West Downtown Neighborhood Association’s Dec. 21 Christmas Stroll that lights up that area with luminaries.
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