Favorite Things: Christmas Edition

 
It doesn't take much to please me. I get so many little thrills from Christmas and its traditions! I get a huge kick out of opening those storage boxes and pulling out my holiday decor. Some things are old, some are newer, but they all bring a grin to my face. One of these is a large jingle bell. I tied a red ribbon onto it to turn it into the sleigh bell from the film "The Polar Express". The movie rings true (no pun intended) for me, as a kid who desperately wanted to keep believing in Santa Claus, even as all the evidence pointed against such a thing. Here's a short clip from the movie: The sleigh bell from the Polar Express .  I love that movie! It's precisely how I always imagined a North Pole visit should be. I mean, c'mon - a hot chocolate-filled train pulls up at your house?? I don't care if the conductor is kind of creepy - count me in!  So I like having the bell sitting there as a reminder to think like a kid and not be too serious.

 



I like to think that I can STILL hear it ring!

Then there are my bottle brush animals. They're another newer addition to my holiday decor. I just love 'em! The photo doesn't quite capture their glittery coating - but they do sparkle in the sunshine. They have a slight problem with proportion; that is one gargantuan owl. Although, now that I think about it, wouldn't it be cool if there were owls the size of bears? Hmm... then again, maybe not. The nighttime hooting alone would destroy life as we know it! But then, if the owl was in proportion to the other two animals, it would be a ridiculous thimble-sized thing sitting there... Anyway, every time I walk past their display I smile. The little things, you know!

 

 The sparkly menagerie

I also have a Christmas village of sorts. It's rather lame as such things go, but I like it. It is a conglomeration of some newer things and some really old things. I got a few of the bottle brush trees from my aunt, a few more from my mother, and the rest at yard sales. Some were in my grandparents under-tree display - a few of those are plastic and chalkware. I have an old dime bank in the shape of a house and a tiny horse-drawn wagon that is a true antique. My grandmother gave that to me and told me it was her aunt's. On the other side of my tableau are two Steiff hedgehogs lurking among the trees. Like the bottle brush animals above, they are way out of proportion to the rest of the scenery. I like to say that they are the monster hedgehogs emerging from the deep forest to raid the village. Then, in the middle, are the remains of a fort that my nephew carefully made and gave me as a Christmas gift a few years back. It was quite impressive when new but has since fallen apart, so until I get around to re-gluing it, it's set up in a ramshackle fashion: a rickety stockade fence and 3 tiny cabins. I've dubbed it Fort Decrepit. It seems doubtful that this fortification will be able to hold off the onslaught of the giant mutant hedgehogs - maybe the huge invisible army that's hidden behind the fence will rout the beasts. This little scene cracks me up - in fact I often let out an amused "HAH!" when I look at it.

The whole tableau - Fort Decrepit is in the center

   The tiny village.
The little wagon driver is frantically waving to warn the village of....

   The giant mutant hedgehogs on the prowl!

I'm sure a lot of us have Christmas memories of train sets under the tree. We had that, too - at first it was actually under the tree, but as my dad added on to his train set-up, he built a large L-shaped platform for the display. At that point, the whole thing had to be moved to the basement playroom. My brother now has my dad's trains and sets them up during the holidays, so although I don't actually have the trains here at my house, I still get to enjoy them & decided to include them here. I suppose it wouldn't be surprising to anyone that knows me that it's not so much the trains that amuse me, but the props and scenery. My favorite part of the display is the box full of plastic people labeled "Citizens". I mean, what do you call a box of plastic people anyway? They aren't plastic army men or dinosaurs; they're random people - a milkman, a mailman, gentlemen with suits and hats, ladies with shopping bags, a paper boy... you could call them 'townspeople' I suppose. But really, 'citizens' does describe them the best. It's too funny. It might as well be labeled 'Acme Citizens'.
 We used to place them in ludicrous spots on the display, causing our easily perturbed dad to yell at us - "Get those damn people off of there they're going to fall on the tracks and derail the train do you know how much that train cost all right that's IT you are forbidden to touch ANYthing!!" Ha! The citizens are still around ( Dad's still around, too, but now he has no say in the train operations; he can only watch and shake his head in dismay) and they still get messed around with. You have no idea how much mileage we can get out of a hobo camp... Ah, good times!


Of course, my Christmas decorations aren't all just sources of amusement from my overactive imagination. There are plenty of sentimental things, vintage things from my grandparents that practically shout "Granny's house!!", things that family and friends have given me, things that just sit there looking pretty - just the small things that make me smile. Isn't that what it's all about anyway? :)