VINEYARD, Utah — 'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through one Vineyard neighborhood, children were stirring as they all tried to steal a Baby Yoda inflatable.
“Basically, there’s one inflatable and everyone is trying to steal it from each other and whoever has it the day after Christmas by 9 a.m. wins,” said Chantel Amone, one of the neighbors.
They’ve already gone through six different inflatables. When kids and their parents go to steal them from another house, they sometimes get damaged. When they’re broken, they switch to a different inflatable, like the Baby Yoda.
“On the very first one someone nailed it into the grass really hard,” Haven Roney said. "My dad tried to grab it, it ripped, so we had to grab another one.”
At the time this story was done, the Goddard family had possession of the inflatable.
“We had people coming in at 6 in the morning, stuff like that,” Troy Goddard said. "I slept on the porch, we’ve got booby traps set up, boxes, trash, it’s pretty fun.”
For the next 36 hours, stealing is somewhat encouraged among this group, with parent supervision. And all the chaos that follows is welcome right on their front lawn.
Some of the children described the past two weeks of this game as fun, crazy and challenging. The grown-ups agree.
“I would have never guessed that I’d be climbing on a car and trying to get an inflatable off a roof," Ryley Roney said. "If you asked me a year ago that I would be doing that for Christmas, that that’s how we’re celebrating the season, I would not have believed you."
Some decorations are more important than others, but the question on everyone’s mind is who will be crowned the “GOAT" of the Hampton Neighborhood? The winner will receive a trophy and bragging rights for the whole year.
“It’s really the memories, like I hope they remember this when they’re old and gray, that they’ll have these memories of snatching the inflatable,” Amone said.
