Ryan Sauve and Dani Hill certainly know how to grab your attention.
For the past four years, the owners of Stony Hedge Farm on the north end of Hope Street have been designing and building Christmas displays on a grand scale.

This year, it’s a 55-foot tall Grinch greeting light-seekers and commuters alike — and whether he would approve or not, this Grinch bringing a lot of joy to the community. In fact, one social media thread regarding Monday’s storm revealed this Grinch is on everyone’s minds. “Just wondering how the Grinch held up in today's storm,” it read. “Anyone drive by tonight?” (The Grinch weathered the storm well.)

Sauve and Hill bought Stony Hedge Farm in January of 2020 and populated it with chickens, dogs, a goat, a pig, and four horses — Hill is a competitive barrel racer. They work the land in season and sell vegetables and flowers from a farm stand on site, in addition to their “day” jobs at Bristolite (Sauve) and the Bay State Veterinary ER (Hill).

They started their large-scale decorations in that first year.

“It was Ryan’s idea,” said Hill. “He saw a huge display that he loved when he was a little kid and he never forgot it. It was Covid, and he wanted to do something like that for the kids.”

That first year, the decoration was a patriotic flag, but since then, it’s been all Christmas, with Frosty featured in 2021 and a giant reindeer last year.

This year’s Grinch is the biggest to date. It took Sauve, Hill, and their friend Ron Silvia three days to build the chain link framework, with the lights alone taking one of those days. It was all done with the help of a crane donated to the effort by local businessman Andy Tyska.

According to Hill, Sauve is clear he intends to go even bigger next year.
“He doesn’t know what it will be — just that it will be bigger,” said Hill.