Who’s afraid of a little old sequel?
That’s right, Swiftmas is back in Naperville.
For the second year in a row, Amy and Brian Scott have decked their Naperville home near Atlas Lane and Tupelo Avenue in a Taylor Swift-inspired Christmas lights display.
As was the case last year, their house-turned-Swiftie spectacle is a true ode to the popstar, featuring a litany of iconic lyrics and moments from Swift’s career that would have even her most casual fans charmed. Or rather, enchanted.
“I want her to sing!” a young girl said to her mother as the pair stood outside the display this week.
“I know, but Taylor Swift doesn’t actually live here,” her mother replied.
Dressing their house to the nines has been a Scott family holiday tradition for the past 16 years, Amy Scott told the Naperville Sun Tuesday. After last year’s display, though — which became a local phenomenon of sorts — the family took a long respite from decoration talk before they started devising their 2024 theme.
“It took about eight months before I could finally talk about Christmas lights again,” Scott quipped.
They got back into the swing of things about two months ago.
“My husband and I sat down for dinner, and we just said this is the night we’re going to decide what we’re gonna to do,” Scott said.
They started by writing a mission statement. What they came up with was a simple goal: spread love and joy to as many people as possible while maintaining grace with the larger neighborhood, Scott said. With a guiding mission in mind, they got to planning.
While Scott imagined a more scaled back display this year, her husband wanted to carry on the momentum from 2023 and go big. They decided on a middle ground: Swiftmas (version two).
That’s not to say their Taylor 2.0 display is any less captivating than the first (twinkly lights and nods to Swift scour the entirety of their two-story house, their lawn included). But it is reimagined from the first time around.
Whereas last year’s display ambitiously embodied Swift’s entire discography — taking inspiration from the singer’s soon-ending worldwide Eras Tour — the 2024 iteration is more selective. It highlights just three of Swift’s albums.
At the center of the display is a celebration of Swift’s most recent album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” complete with posters laying out song lyrics from the 2024 record and a cutout of Swift herself. Rounding out the “Tortured Poets” section is a handmade typewriter crafted out of metal, wooden dowels and spray paint.
The typewriter even gives the illusion that it’s operational (though Scott admitted its keys are, in fact, immovable). At the top of the typewriter, there’s a paper sticking out with a small message: “May you have a holiday season filled with joy, peace, and love. The Scott Family.”
Other records the display pays homage to are Swift’s sixth album “Reputation” and eighth album “Folklore.” They are likewise represented with handcrafted mementos and motifs.
To bring the display to fruition, the family — including Scott, her husband and their two daughters, who are 19 and 22 — has been brainstorming for weeks, Scott said.
“It’s the process, to us as a family, that is so fun,” she said. “To just think symbolically and pick out our favorite pieces of each album and each song.”
Though a continuation of 2023, decorations were all newly made for this year, Scott said. That includes a new cutout of Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce, tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. He made a cardboard appearance in last year’s display too, but the Scotts wanted an updated cutout of the beau. Kelce’s newly printed standee rests tall atop the Scotts’ roof.
Meanwhile, the family gave away most of their original Swiftie decorations to kids in their neighborhood, Scott said.
“If they can still spread that good energy out there, why not?” she said.
As an added personal touch this year, a corner of the display is also devoted to the different decorations the family has put up over the years with a poster that reads: “Our Holiday Eras.” It lays out a picture history of the various displays they’ve devised since 2008.
The display’s final element is an opportunity to give back. Interspersed with decorations are QR codes taking visitors to a fundraiser for Little Friends, a Warrenville-based organization that provides services for people with autism and other developmental disabilities. Imbuing their 2023 display with a similar fundraising opportunity, the Scotts raised $22,000 for Little Friends last year.
“It’s an organization that we’re supported for years, and we just want to continue to do good by them and give back to them as much as possible,” Scott said.
The same sentiment goes for anyone that decides to stop by their display, she added.
“The best part of this is watching joy spread. … The whole point of why we do this is just to spread happiness to people,” Scott said. “And isn’t that what we should be doing in the holiday season? You know, truly from our hearts, that’s why we do it.”
They’re certainly striking a chord. By early evening Tuesday, a small group of kids had gathered outside the Scotts’ house. They bustled around each other excitedly to take in the scene.
“There’s Taylor Swift!” one young onlooker exclaimed. “There’s Taylor Swift! There’s Taylor Swift!”