SIMPSON, Pa. — It's not Christmas in this part of Lackawanna County until the giant North Star is lit up high up on the hill above Simpson in Fell Township.
"It makes you know that you're back home. You can see it, and you can feel it and you can understand the Christmas spirit again," said Simpson resident Joe Kluck.
"I always bring my kids up here as soon as it's lit to come and check it out. And they did a great job," added Ed Skorupa of Carbondale."They cleared all the trees outta here so you could really see it down the valley now, which is awesome."
It's hard to miss if you drive through the Carbondale area around the holidays, and plenty of people take the trip up the hill to see the twinkling lights up close.
But not everyone knows the history. Joe Scotchlas does.
"The star and cross combination started when they wanted to recognize the holidays and recognize their Christian background. So, the community got together, a couple of the members in town, and created the Simpson star," explained Joe Scotchlas from the Simpson Industrial Redevelopment Company, the rebranded Simpson Chamber of Commerce, which started the tradition.
There's some debate about whether the original lighting was in 1971 or as Scotchlas insists, a year earlier.
But everyone can agree that Stanley Yavoroski is the mastermind behind the star.
He passed away soon after designing it. His wife, now 89, will help kick off the holiday season this year.
"She's gonna be here to flip the switch on the anniversary. Her husband was the first electrical engineer on the star and her son helped dramatically revamp the star approximately a year and a half ago," said Scotchlas.
Stan Yavoroski Jr. is also an electrical engineer like his father. He works in the Philadelphia area.
He designed the remote control to change the colors of the bulbs, which is a lot easier than getting up in a lift to change each one by hand, not to mention safer.
"His son heard about us monkeying around up here trying to get stuff done and he came to our rescue. He's a brilliant individual and he came forward with his brains and his money and did a lot of work for us," said Fell Township Supervisor Andy Gorel.
The official lighting of the star takes place at 5 p.m. on Wednesday on December 15.
It will remain until January 15.