One of 13 fairy doors currently in Sunnyside (Courtesy of Samantha Hamilton)
Sept. 2, 2020 By Allie Griffin
Magical fairies are the newest residents of Sunnyside, with more than a dozen fairy doors popping up throughout the neighborhood.
The fairies are moving into trees, gardens and walls outside businesses and along the sidewalks of Sunnyside, with the support of a human resident, who has helped 13 fairies find homes since July.
Samantha Hamilton, a Sunnyside resident and Irish native, has been placing fairy doors by trees and on grassy areas throughout the community.
Fairy doors and homes — which consist of miniature doors, houses and woodland settings placed on or near trees — have become popular along walking trails in Ireland over the last decade or so.
Hamilton and her family usually visit her home country each summer and search for fairy doors while there. This year she decided to invite some fairies into Sunnyside — where she has lived for the past 20 years — since the pandemic squashed her family’s travel plans.
She began building homes for the magical creatures in her own backyard to entertain her six- and three-year-old daughters while they were stuck indoors during the coronavirus pandemic.
The girls created little fairy houses out of milk cartons, which they placed outside in their garden. Hamilton told her daughters that if they left their creations outside overnight, a fairy might move in.
The next morning, the girls awoke to the sight of a new fairy door next to the carton-houses and were ecstatic to learn a fairy had made a home in their garden.
Hamilton saw how excited her own children were at the sight of the door and decided to build more fairy homes throughout Sunnyside for neighborhood children and children-at-heart to find and enjoy.
“I thought my own kids enjoyed it so much, and I was like maybe I’ll order more doors and install them around the neighborhood, so other people who go on walks can enjoy them and it might be like one of those fairy trails in Ireland,” Hamilton said.
She imported the miniature doors from Ireland and began scoping out the real estate along Sunnyside Gardens for her winged pals. She has helped 13 fairies move to the neighborhood and hopes to find homes for at least seven more so that Sunnyside has 20 fairy residents in all.
One of 13 fairy doors currently in Sunnyside (Courtesy of Samantha Hamilton)
Children and adults alike, have since been on the hunt for the fairy doors. People began posting photos of the doors on Facebook and families have been stopping to admire them.
Hamilton has seen children pointing at the doors and shouting with excitement at the site of the miniature homes on her own walks, she said.
“It is very heartwarming, so I continued [adding more],” she said.
She soon started getting interest from adults as well who applauded the whimsical homes on social media.
“I think people have a new found sense of whimsy from just these crazy times that we’re living in,” she said. “They have had more time to themselves, so they’re embracing the little things that are fun.”
Creating the fairy homes has also been therapeutic, Hamilton said, adding that she discovered her artistic side during the COVID shut down.
“It brought out the artistic side of me that I think was buried because of work and the pace of life,” she said. “For me it’s been one of the positive sides of this lock-down…having the time to indulge in the artistic side that I didn’t even know was there.”
Hamilton has created a map of the general area where the fairy homes are located. The map doubles as a coloring page for children and print-outs will soon be available for families to pick up at The Skillman, located at 45-20 Skillman Ave.
She also launched a Facebook page, A Fairy Trail of New York, where she will announce when new fairies that move into town–without disclosing the address–and other details about the fairy doors. Hamilton only asks that users don’t reveal the exact locations of the fairy doors, so that residents can enjoy searching for them.
However, she is planning to launch a map in the future with the exact locations of each fairy door for parents who may have trouble finding them and need the instant gratification to appease their young children. The map will be available for an optional donation, which will fund supplies for future fairy doors in other neighborhoods.
Hamilton also hopes to involve children in adjacent Queens neighborhoods and build fairy doors in those areas.
“My intention was just to entertain my children,” Hamilton said. “[But] it’s brought fun to many adults and children and that’s been really wonderful.”
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35 Comments
What an awesome idea !
Love this!!
Excellent unique idea Samantha, makes neighborhood more enchanting to stroll around for both children and adults alike.. Magical Sunnyside …
Just another reason why I’m proud to be a Sunnysider! A must see! Put Sunnyside on the list of fun places for parents to take their kids to while observing social distancing!
Sunnyside is a destination now!
There’s one on a tree on 43rd by Celtic Park by the parking lot entrance.
Love them, bring them to forest hills
This is such a feel good article. Thank you Samantha for bringing joy to the neighborhood especially in a time that our neighborhood needs it the most. So many negative things going around it’s nice to finally read something positive. I actually saw one of the little doors by one of the trees and little plants around it. I thought it was so cute but had no idea it was part of this whole fairy trail. Thank you for bringing a little color and joy to Sunnyside!
Aww sweet. I miss Sunnyside.
Most of the posters here are vile people. Please keep your homophobic slurs to yourselves.
This is a very sweet idea for children in the area to enjoy.
And they are mentioning Van Bremer or other ‘fairies’. Everyone else has been wonderful and positive.
Zero homophobic comments would have been better.
It’s not hate or homophobia. It’s humor. Stop being hypersensitive and have a giggle once in a while.
The first few comments were the vile ones. There should be zero tolerance for that kind of hate. I am glad many others have chimed in positively.
I’ve seen this around the neighborhood and they’ve really made my day! Thank you Samantha!
BRAVO
Sprinkling fairy dust along Sunnyside to make Mac a better person!
That’s nice.
NYC needs more fairies
Such a lovely idea!!! Hope some of the fairies can make it across to the other side of Queens Blvd ??
How much is being wasted on this?
Umm, nothing. Just a kind neighbor’s time.
You’re right. No one should ever buy or make anything that is not utilitarian ever again. No art,no film, no TV, no writing or reading novels or poems, no cooking meals with herbs or spices, no decorating…
Is this going to take up any parking spaces?
Hahaha. FTW
I cant wait to take pictures and send them to my niece she loves this stuff. Thanks
So cool. Thank you, Samantha.
Went for a walk through the gardens with my 80 year old mom. She really was impressed with the little fairy doors. “What a lovely thing for a neighbor to do” said mom. We continued walking on Skillman Ave until she spotted J. ” That man is crass and vulgar I can’t stand him” said mom. Sadly a pleasant evening walk was ruined.
Great. Welcome to AOC’s New York. What next, jolly elves coming down my chimney? Sprites taking my children’s teeth? Ghosts and goblins going house to house demanding treats or threatening tricks?
Time to leave NYC for a normal life.
Nothing to do with AOC, JVB or DeBlasio. Zero zilch Nada!
Just a woman with a kind heart trying to lift some kids spirits in a really shitty time in history! And for that little bit of joy seeing kids eyes light up when they spot them, I say thank you Samantha Hamilton ❤️
But please ‘Defund the bridge trolls’, by all means, pack your years of negative baggage up and leave so the rest of us can get on with living without people like you who are fearful of jolly elves, fairies, sprites and ghosts!! Ba-humbug, Ya big scardy cat! ?
Speaking of fairies, where’s van bramer?
What are the odds!
Let’s bring people down with insults. Stand proud neighbor. You’re a good example of the perniciousness of the right.
“For a century the GOP has been bankrolled by big business and Wall Street. Trump wants to keep the money rolling in. His signature tax cut, two years old last Sunday, has helped U.S. corporations score record profits and the stock market reach all-time highs. To spur even more corporate generosity for the 2020 election, Trump is suggesting more giveaways. Chief of staff Mick Mulvaney recently told an assemblage of CEOs that Trump wants to “go beyond” his 2017 tax cut…
“Trump also wants to expand his working-class base. In rallies and countless tweets he claims to be restoring the American working class by holding back immigration and trade. Incumbent Republicans and GOP candidates are mimicking Trump’s economic nationalism. As Trump consigliore Stephen Bannon boasted recently, “we’ve turned the Republican party into a working-class party.”
Keeping the GOP the Party of Big Money while making it over into the Party of the Working Class is a tricky maneuver, especially at a time when capital and labor are engaged in the most intense economic contest in more than a century because so much wealth and power are going to the top.
Armed with deductions and loopholes, America’s largest companies paid an average federal tax rate of only 11.3 percent on their profits last year, roughly half the official rate under the new tax law – the lowest effective corporate tax rate in more than eighty years.
Yet almost nothing has trickled down to ordinary workers. Corporations have used most of their tax savings to buy back their shares, giving the stock market a sugar high. The typical American household remains poorer today than it was before the financial crisis began in 2007.”
https://robertreich.org/post/189838231535
https://robertreich.org/post/189838231535
Sunnyside has plenty of fairies. What’s the big deal?
Let’s have a parade for them. Oh wait…
You are clever. Did you come up with that yourself?