The Christmas Times^TM, the Official E-Mail Newsletter of Family Christmas Online^TM and Affiliated Sites

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In this Issue

The good news is that we were so flooded with signup requests and reader questions this past holiday season that we're still digging out. The bad news is that we were so flooded with signup requests and reader questions this past holiday season that we're still digging out. So if you signed up for one of our forums or something and haven't heard back, we aren't ignoring you deliberately. Thanks for your patience.

While this past winter wasn't as harsh as last year's, it still seems to be hanging on extra long. In our back yard - where hardly anybody but us can see it - is a little grapevine tree strung with white lights. All the other outdoor Christmas decorations are taken down, but this one is still on a timer, so it comes on for a few hours every evening. And as long as there are several inches of snow around it, it still looks great. When am I going to take it down, or at least unplug it? When it stops snowing every three or four days, that's when! Our neighbors have taken down all of their Christmas decorations except for a "blow-mold" snowman who still lights up every night. Maybe they're thinking the same thing.

In other words, we're a little bit anxious for spring to get here. That's one reason I'm glad this newsletter includes a spring-themed project we borrowed from our BigIndoorTrains.com site (the one that that caters to folks who love O gauge, On30, and S gauge trains, as well as holiday villages).

That said, we still think about Christmas year-round. If you've been following our stories about our attempts to collect the same plaster Woolworth's nativity figures that I grew up with, you might be interested to know that on a trip to Crawfordsville, Indiana last month, I found a plaster camel-driver (and a bunch of little putz-house style ornaments) in that town's Goodwill. When we got home, I compared the plaster camel driver to the ones in my photographs of my parent's nativity (now at my niece's house in Norfolk). Turns out, he's not made from the same mold. But he'll have a place anyway.

Further down, we link to an article about trying to recreate another nativity, the one my kids grew up with.

In the meantime, my friends at CardboardChristmas.com have helped me ferret out a little more information about some of the little cardboard house ornaments I found.

Click the following link to see that discussion on the CardboardChristmas.com forum page:

• http://cardboardchristmas.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=790

We hope we've brought some holiday cheer this week. And we especially hope that you will enjoy any time you can spend with your family in the coming months.

Topics discussed in this update include:

• Mary's Unexpected Journey - Our attempts to complete a nativity set in time for Christmas nearly go awry, when the last pieces we need are misdirected by the post office.

• Free Spring-Themed Building Projects - A whole new holiday village in the style of the vintage lithographed structures that graced many tinplate railroads in the early 1900s. This set celebrates Spring, and fits on a kind of box that many folks have too many of this time of year.

• Saint Patrick: His People, His Work and His Day

• Christmas Discussion Forum Reminder - Continuing to Connect Christmas enthusiasts online

Mary's Unexpected Journey

To jump to the article, click on the following link:

http://familychristmasonline.com/musings/marys_journey/marys_journey.htm

Free Spring-Themed Building Projects

This year, we're also giving folks who like having a holiday-themed railroad or village, but don't like taking it down, a reason to leave everything set up a few more months. Still in the tinplate style, we have buildings inspired by the holidays of late winter and early spring, including Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and others. Yes, we realize that some of those holidays have already passed, but you can get started on the ones that haven't.

Best of all, if you'd like to build these, but you're "all thumbs," the graphics are designed to fit over 160-count Kleenex boxes, so there's not much to cut out.

To jump to the article and start downloading free, professional-quality graphics, click the following link.

http://bigindoortrains.com/primer/buildings/lackie/spring_stores/spring_holiday_storefronts.htm

To see our other "Tribute to Tinplate" projects and resources, click the following link:

http://bigindoortrains.com/primer/buildings/lackie/tinplate.htm

Saint Patrick: His People, His Work and His Day

To learn more about the history behind the man and the legend, click on the following link:

http://familychristmasonline.com/other_holidays/st_patricks_day/st_patricks_day.htm

Christmas Discussion Forums

By using these forums, our readers with shared interests can communicate with each other directly. And as new members sign up, they can add content, answer questions, post interesting finds, and otherwise build the hobby.

You won't have to register to see the questions and answers, but you'll need to register to post directly to the forums. Also, once you are registered, you'll be able to tell at a glance if there are any new postings since the last time you signed in. (The little icons change color or shape, depending on the forum.)

Logging in is a manual process; that's the only way I can keep hundreds of spammers and nutcases a week from signing up. So it can take a couple days. (Actually, right now it is taking a few weeks - we got so slammed this year.) But once you've logged in, you'll be able to respond to questions, start new topics, and interact with our other readers knowing that we go to great lengths to maintain a safe, friendly environment.

To see the FamilyChristmasOnline.com discussion forums, click on the following link:

http://FamilyChristmasOnline.com/forums/

To sign up for the FamilyChristmasOnline.com forum, click on the following link:

http://FamilyChristmasonline.com/forum_signup.htm

To see the Old Christmas Tree Lights discussion forums, click on the following link:

http://oldchristmastreelights.com/forums/

To sign up for the OldChristmasTreeLights.com forum, click on the following link:

http://oldchristmastreelights.com/octl_forum_signup.htm

To see Cardboard Christmas (Putz house) forums, click on the following link:

http://cardboardchristmas.com/forums/

To sign up for the CardboardChristmas.com forum, click on the following link:

http://cardboardchristmas.com/html/contact.html

Keep in Touch

Each month, we get more interest in this newsletter, in our Christmas sites, and in the Christmas traditions, ideas, and memories we discuss. We welcome your questions and comments as indicators of what we should be working on next (also, we always try to answer reader questions quickly). In addition, if you have any photos, tips, or articles you'd like to share with your fellow Christmas enthusiasts, please let us know.

Best Wishes!

As always, our hope is that we can continue helping you and your family (as Dickens said of Scrooge):

Honor Christmas in your heart, and
"try to keep it all the year."

In the meantime, please keep in touch, and let us know what you'd like to see added or changed.

May God grant you joy and wonder every season of this year,

Paul and Shelia Race

http://FamilyChristmasOnline.com

http://CardboardChristmas.com

http://OldChristmasTreeLights.com

Click the following link to view our December, 2014 newsletter:

http://familychristmasonline.com/fco_newsletter/14_12_c_times.htm

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