Sharon Rutledge is responsible for bringing that festive feel to her community by creating the Milford challenge and it all started with a post.
"I usually see the neighbors walking around and nobody’s out because it’s cold and snowing a little bit and I thought I’m gonna decorate the street sign," said Rutledge. "Kind of a way to say happy holidays merry Christmas so I did and then I had my husband take a picture and I decided to post it."
From there the #Milfordchallenge was born. Sharon encouraged her community to do the same with hundreds of her neighbors following suit.
"Milford takes everything to the limit. Never did I think it was going to do this," said Rutledge.
In a year full of heartache Rutledge wants to bring hope to her community.
"I’m just happy that people are having fun it’s something they can do COVID safely and just bring some joy," she said.
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It’s become so widespread even Milford Mayor Ben Blake is weighing in on the holiday happenings.
"We need this at this point we need to do whatever it takes to make sure a smile is on everyone’s face," said Blake.
Bob Asmussen and Monica Bartolommeo live in the Milford community and love the holidays. The two decorated their street sign along with their entire house and they say this year everyone in the neighborhood is getting in the spirit.
"You can’t even go to the store and buy any more lights or anything everything is out of stock because everyone’s still the street sign," said Asmussen. He described the joy he sees it brings to the community, saying, "We see people slowing down can we see the cell phone snapping it’s nice we don’t do it really for anything besides trying to bring the spirit to us both of our kids and everybody in the community and all the kids around here."
NBC Connecticut did reach out to the Milford Police who say that residents by law are not supposed to decorate street signs. The department is discouraging the community from doing so, but says they won't remove decorations unless it's obstructing the wording on the signs.
