STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — For the past eight years, Brodie Stutzman has hand-crafted life-size nutcracker statues that are put on display throughout Steubenville each November.
It’s a family affair that starts with sketches by his wife Madeline, who is a graphic designer.
This year they’re working on 15 of them, including Captain Nemo from the Jules Verne classic, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
“To scale them up and make them cost-effective is to make styrofoam which is really easy to shape,” said Stutzman. “And a coating of fiberglass which makes them durable and weatherproof. It’s like a good five days of solid work, but you know, I’m usually working on three or four at a time.”
Stutzman has been busy over the years taking care of maintenance and building new figurines.
Overall, they have 200 nutcrackers in the collection, each a unique movie, pop culture or local personality.
Mark Nelson is Stutzman’s father-in-law. He is a serial entrepreneur, owns his own assembly plant, and has paid for many of the nutcracker statues out of pocket.
Nelson came up with the idea behind the Nutcracker Village nearly a decade ago and said he’s proud of what the yearly tradition has become.
“As my kids got older, they really wanted to get involved with revitalizing their hometown. So we kind of picked up the shovels and hammers and worked on a couple of older buildings for a couple of nonprofits. You see really all ages coming down to enjoy them,” said Mark Nelson. “It’s created a lot of opportunity for generations to come together. You’ll see grandma with her kids and then her kids as well as great-grandkids.”
The Nelsons and Stutzman say the Nutcracker Village is a year-round effort, but a labor of love.
“It’s really, really great to see people from other places who come here and say, wow, this is like a Hallmark movie. I wish I could live here,” said Gretchen Nelson. “You know Steubenville is a steel belt town and so we’ve had to kind of reinvent ourselves.”
All the family members said they cherish this valuable family time spent together and know they’re making a positive impact in the community.
“I’m always trying to push myself and improve upon things,” said Stutzman.
They hope to continue the tradition for years to come.
“We’ve had people from almost every state in the country come out to just visit this. It’s really great to see,” says Stutzman.
The 200 life-size nutcrackers go on display in Steubenville, starting Nov. 22 through Jan. 7.
