Madison, Ind. fabricator handcrafting creative holiday displays for city streets

MADISON, Ind. (WDRB) -- Spiders, dancing skeletons, Santa Claus and hearts: they may sound random, but they all share one thing in common: how they're made.

Each design serves as a holiday or seasonal display in Madison, Indiana, and each one is hand-crafted by city fabricator Dave Kidwell.

"I'm a mechanic. I do signs, I assemble, I set up, I do a little bit of everything," said Kidwell.

Madison, Indiana city fabricator, Dave Kidwell creates decorations for city displays

He's worked for the city of Madison for nearly three decades. His welding talents have set him apart in his field, and in the past few years he's started creating the seasonal decorations to be displayed on light posts and in flower beds around Madison.

"It just comes together when you sit and think about how you have to do it," he said. "And then with it does turn out, you know, you want to pat yourself on the back."

🚗 MADISON:Today we met David, who makes all the decorations that are displayed each season. Did you know one man handcrafts them all?!Right now, street crews are putting up the Valentine’s hearts ❤️ 💕 while David starts working on flowers 🌸 🌼 for spring. @WDRBNews pic.twitter.com/9ZYRmTvFkm
— Darby Beane (@DarbyBeane) January 31, 2023

The designs begin as ideas and a communications employee at City Hall is the one who's taken the lead on creating the cardboard models that Kidwell turns into 3-D creations.

He bends metal and welds pieces together, creating each design. Before they're placed outside for the city to see, paint and colorful lights are added.

"Everything is different about each one, but they're all made the same, you know," he said. "All of them by hand."

His current project is creating flowers for spring to go in the flower beds surrounding Main Street in downtown Madison.

"This one is over 6 feet tall," he said, showing off the first completed flower. "Every bend is different -- every flower, every silhouette that they bring me. Everything is different."

It's a case of trial and error, getting each piece created to expectations. And Kidwell carefully crafts each one, taking his time to get it just right.

Doing this task on top of his other job responsibilities in the garage is a piece of pride and a way to give back to his hometown. These displays will be his legacy for generations to come in Madison.

"After I'm gone, they'll still be here," Kidwell said. "And that means a lot to me: being a part of the heritage of Madison."

The holiday creations really got rolling in 2020 and have continued to grow. They include skeletons for Halloween and nutcrackers for Christmas. Some are more than 14 feet tall. The city garage ran out of room to store them all, so now they fill a storage container nearby.

Madison, Indiana decorations created by city fabricator, Dave Kidwell

"I think the more of this that we do, it'll spread the word more about about Madison throughout the country," said Kidwell.

While Kidwell continues working on the spring flowers, city crews are currently placing more than 100 hearts -- all handcrafted by Kidwell -- on city light posts for Valentine's Day.