Santa up to bat

SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. — Little League teams in the Madison area are familiar with Krebs Field — the baseball diamond located at Krebs Dairy Farm. The field hosts local teams for practices and games in an atmosphere that feels like the “Field of Dreams.” During winter, a different team takes the field. With Frosty on the hill, Santa digs in at the plate for a distinctive Christmas display.

Krebs Dairy Farm is a third-generation dairy farm, milking 32 cows. Bruce and Helen Krebs own the farm, working alongside their youngest son, Justin. The Krebs built the baseball field on their farm in 2004.

“One year we were buying a new tree, and I told Helen I wanted to do something with the baseball field,” Bruce Krebs said. “At supper one night, I thought of it. After the boys went to bed, I went to Menards and got every snowman and just about every extension cord they had.”

Krebs loaded up his GMC Envoy with nine snowmen and 500 feet of cord as he set about his quest to fill up his baseball field with holiday cheer.

“I put the seats down and got them all stacked in,” Krebs said. “It was quite the site to check my rearview mirror and have all these snowman faces looking back at me.”

The snowmen were hardly the first venture to spread holiday cheer at Krebs Dairy Farm. Krebs’ father had his own unique way of celebrating Christmas that rubbed off on his youngest child.

“Dad would always decorate the trees outside,” Krebs said. “I’d help him with the lights, and no matter how big the trees got, he would still do it.”

Inside the house was a similar story as the elder Krebs would keep three trees meticulously decorated in the home.

“We’d have one on the front porch, one in the family room, and one in the living room,” Krebs said. “He would take his time and walk around the tree and find the perfect spot for each ornament. Sometimes he’d sit down, take a drink of coffee and look at the tree before taking an ornament and moving it because it wasn’t in the right spot.”

Krebs lost his father in November 1997, and Helen’s father passed away in November 2022. Decorating their farm has turned into an outlet to continue to bring cheer to a time of year that could bring negativity to the Krebs’ household.

“November is a tough month for us,” Krebs said. “This is just something to make winter not so bad. We all probably have those times of year that are tough, but this is a way for us to do something positive.”

Along with placing snowmen and Santa Claus around their baseball field, Krebs Dairy Farm also has a Santa overlooking the road from a silo, and a tree filled with lights on top of another Harvestore silo.

“When we first put decorations up around the farm, I wanted to put a tree on the silo,” Krebs said. “I was going to put one of our old artificial trees up, but I didn’t know how to anchor that down where it wouldn’t snap off with the wind. So instead, I put up a rod on the silo and made it look like a tree. I’ve been doing that for 25 years now.”

During November, Bruce would plug the tree into an outlet near the milkhouse, making it easy to bring the Christmas spirit to his family in the house.

“The boys would be so excited because we’d be in the kitchen and all of a sudden our oldest, Ryan, would see it and he’d yell, ‘Santa came, Santa came,’” Krebs said.

The decorations have evolved over the years, from green and red cellophane covering recessed lights to smart LED lights that make changing the colors as easy as a few clicks on a phone.

The snowmen on Krebs Field have seen their numbers grow. Along with the nine on the field, an additional fan section has been added. The scene is complete with two larger snowmen acting as the moms and dads watching their little leaguers, and a few smaller ones depicting younger siblings.

“It’s fun to see people drive by,” Helen said. “People know about it, and they’ll drive out specifically to look at the farm.”

The snowmen stay up past Christmas to provide cheer during winter’s short, cold days. The joy is not just for the Krebs, but for everyone who happens to pass by their farm.

“I had a morning where nothing went right,” Krebs said. “I was coming in for breakfast at 11:30, and I was about halfway up the driveway when someone beeped at me. I turned around wondering who could possibly need me now. The guy rolls down his window and told me he drives by twice a day for work, and passing our farm is the highlight of his drive.”

The kindness that the passerby showed was a way to validate what Krebs and his family have been doing for two generations: bringing joy and happiness to not just their own farm, but to the community that passes by.

“We’re probably all guilty of never telling people they’re doing a good job,” Krebs said. “So I really try to do that because you don’t know what people are going through in their lives, and if you say something good, it might really mean something to them. Kindness can go a long way.”