Christmas village returns to Chester Town Hall

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2015 Telegraph Publishing LLC

After a year’s hiatus and a town office remodeling that gave him more space in which to work, Ken Barrett – Chester’s own Father Christmas – is back creating a spectacle of light and movement, nostalgia and whimsy with his annual Christmas village. It’s like having a New York City department store window display with a town clerk in it.

Barrett, who retired from the Town of Chester in 2011 after 38 years of service, says he has been collecting the hundreds of ornaments, lights, toys and buildings that make up the village since the 1970s and has been putting up the annual display for about 30 years. The project takes about a week to put up.

You can see Barrett’s display during business hours at the town office, 556 Elm St. in Chester, through the end of the month. The office will close for the Christmas holiday beginning on noon Wednesday, Dec. 23 and reopen on Monday, Dec. 28. The office office will then close for New Year’s Eve and Day at noon on Thursday, Dec. 31, and the display will be taken down over the weekend of Jan. 2.