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Written by Paul and Shelia Race for Family Christmas OnlineTM





The Christmas TimesTM, the Official E-Mail Newsletter of Family Christmas OnlineTM and Affiliated Sites

This newsletter is for people who like celebrating holidays, especially Christmas. It is produced in conjunction with the following web sites.

Family Christmas OnlineTMGo to Family Christmas Online.com
Cardboard ChristmasTMLearn about collecting, restoring, and reproducing vintage cardboard Christmas houses.
Old Christmas Tree LightsTMLearn the history of Christmas tree lighting.

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In This Issue

I hope you don't mind hearing at least a little more about our move and our adjustment to a new house, since that's uppermost in our mind this month, and we're mostly having to fit Christmas decorating, cards, and preparations around things that have come up related to the move.

Four days before Thanksgiving we moved into our new home. Which is to say, with the generous help of family and friends, all of our "big furniture" and countless boxes and crates of stuff came from our old address to our new address. Then three days after Thanksgiving, we moved everything else. Of course, we tried to sort on the front end, but inevitably things got mixed up. Plus there are things from our old house that we are having trouble finding a place for our new house. So it will take us some time to settle in.

Lowes couldn't fit the whole word 'Joy' into this display, so they spelled out 'Oy' which is sort of how we've been feeling this seasion. Click for bigger photo.Celebrating the "Oy" of Christmas - Of course we've been visiting the hardware stores a lot, as we discover one "little" thing after another that needs attention in our new home. On one trip to Lowes, I saw that the crew had set up a huge cloth, wire, and light display that was supposed to spell "Joy" but they didn't have room to line up the letters. So they spelled out (quiet accidentally, I'm sure) "Oy." Considering all that we have to do to get ready for Christmas this year, that's actually appropriate.

Shelia was pleased that most of our art pieces from the old house work in the new house, but not everything does. Some of the last boxes we moved were our Christmas decorations, and Shelia's figured out which of those work in the new house, too. Again, most, but not all do. But we seem to have more than we need, so that's fine.

Shelia has also been giving a Christmas treatment to our wrap-around front and side porch, which she and her sister had recently decorated for autumn.

Santa was painted by folk artist Sonya Howard several years ago. I found the gate in the woods of our old house, and the cast iron rabbit was in the garden of the old house when we moved in.  So, some nice reminders of the old place have come with us.  Click for bigger photo. An old quilt and a pair of stuffed moose adorn an ancient rocker.  Paul and Shelia painted the 'Joy' sign on old barn siding a couple of years ago.  Click for bigger photo. Ready for a marshmallow roast?  Paul made these marshmallows out of thick styrofoam packaging with a hole saw, so I wouldn't recommend actually roasting them.  The branch is from the magnolia at our old property - another souvenir of sorts.  Click for bigger photo.

Unfortunately, you can't really see those things from the street, so I kept trying to find a time to put up some lights. I finally did, in 28F weather, with the help of a large box of cup hooks and four very long light strands that I brought over from the old house.

I realize that many folks have far more impressive Christmas lighting and decorations, but this year was a "make-do-in-a-hurry" year, and I think it turned out pretty well, considering. And it makes the house look great, if I say so myself.

Our new old house with last year's lights.  Click for bigger photo.

It may sound strange to be thinking of such things so late in the year, but you have to remember that up through Thanksgiving weekend, we were trying to keep up two houses, and I just got the grass properly mowed at the "new" house on December 3.

Rope lighting installed on the inner rail of the back deck improves visibility and looks festive at the same time. Click for bigger photo.In a way, I started decorating the back porch early. The back porch light of our house isn't wired properly, and we haven't had time to get an electrician over. So I spent part of the last warm day of the year fastening rope lights to the inside rail of the back porch. Now the rope lights help you see where you're going and they look nice and festive, from inside the railing at least. I won't be doing any more rope lighting between now and Christmas, though - it's impractical to hang rope lights when it's cooler than 60F.

Well, that's 44 feet out of the back porch's 80' railing, not to mention about 112' of railing on the front and side porches. Christmas decorating for a house with a wrap-around porch is never trival.

To get a little more light on the back porch, I started shopping for a pole lamp that I could use temporarily on the back porch, then move to the front driveway after the porch lights are fixed. What I found actually looked pretty Christmassy and didn't cost THAT much more than many fake plastic lanterns people buy for Christmas decorating that only last one season. Details are below.

Last month, we mentioned that an online audio version of "Miranda's Christmas Visitor" was on the way, adding it to the many publications and reprints of our friends' and family's stories. Today, I heard from a 6th grade teacher in Great Falls, Montana, who is interested in using Tess Hoffman's abbreviated version of A Christmas Carol for a reading group.

It is fun to see how far a little grace and warmth can go. Like around the world. Literally!

Topics discussed in this update include:

  • It's the Real Train! - Coca Cola's magazine-style "Journey" web site discusses the trains and Christmas tie-ins.

  • Shed a Little Light - Lighting a dark part of our new property gives me some ideas for Christmas decorating.

  • The Snowman Cometh - Looking for a companion to our whimsical blow-mold Santa, we order a cheerful snowman.

  • Speaking of Coca Cola and Trains - A reminder and link to the 2014 Coca Cola commercial that featured a real vintage steam locomotive delivering Coca Cola to a snowy midwestern, 1940ish town.


It's The Real Train

As many of you know, in 2006 I wrote an article for one of my train pages about why people relate trains and Christmas. I've since moved that article to the Family Christmas Online site, plus I've expanded it based on reader input and more information coming to light.

Since then, I've added other articles and even one site specifically about Christmas trains. I haven't updated the article much in the last few years, but it's obviously reached a lot of people, since I see bits and pieces of it all over the Internet (uncited, of course).

A 1950s-era Coca Cola ad showing a very accurate rendition of a contemporary Lionel set. Click for bigger photo.I occasionally get contacted by manufacturers I recommend or by journalists wanting to use me as a source in an article somewhere. But this week, something especially fun happened - I was contacted by a nice lady putting together an article about Christmas and trains for Coca Cola's magazine-format "Journey" web page.

Of course Christmas and Coca Cola have a longstanding relationship as well - for over a generation, the Coca Cola Santa advertisements defined folks' expectations of what Santa was "supposed" to look like. One of my favorites is the ad to the right, showing Santa playing with carefully detailed contemporary Lionel train set. I told the journalist that she should use this image, because it was the "trifecta" - Santa, trains, and Coca Cola. (There's a pizza, too, but I'm not sure how that fits in. I hope Santa washes his hands between eating pizza and handling the train, because pepperoni oil is pervasive and that train was destined to be a collector's item.)

Update: When I published the newsletter, the article wasn't out yet. It has since been published at the following URL:

My original article "What Do Trains Have to Do with Christmas?" is at the link below:

And in case this discussion got you interested in trains with Coca Cola colors and logos, the following page has a couple that were still in stock the last time I checked:

Shed a Little Light

When you move to a new (old) house, there are certain things you can't help taking for granted. Like the back porch lights working. Unfortunately, when you move in November, and the days are short, getting up the steps from the driveway to the back porch and getting your key in the back door in pitch blackness every evening become a problem.

Although I had put rope lighting around the inside railing of the back porch and stairs, there was still no light to speak of on the garage doors or the back door of the house. The end of our driveway is also hard to see from the street after dark. So I had been looking at dusk-to-dawn post lights for the front yard when I had an idea. Why don't I buy one for now and use it on the back porch until the porch lights are fixed, then move it out front next spring?

Victorian post lamp, mounting base, and LED bulb.  Click for bigger photo.According to their web pages, Lowes had a nice little $6 base that you could screw a "post light" onto for fastening to horizontal surfaces (like porch rail). And Home Depot had a nice little $20 Victorian-era lamp (Hampton Bay Model # HB7026P-05, which seems identical to a "Sunlight" lamp offered by Amazon for about the same price here. (The base is also available at Amazon here, though it costs more than it does at Lowes.

Both pieces are aluminum. Neither is all that heavy-duty - a good knock with, say, a basketball, could break them. But they won't rust or fall apart from UV like a lot of the other products would eventually. So, when I was on a quest for a dozen other things I needed for the house, I bought those bits.

At home, I screwed the base and post together and immediately thought "How Christmassy!" I also thought of all those plastic and cheap iron "Victorian lanterns" people were paying $20 - $40 for which would be lucky to last a season.

So, keeping in mind the vintage look, the next time I was at the hardware store (this happens a lot when you've just bought a house), I bought a funky LED light bulb that is looks like a cross between an Edison bulb and a candelabra bulb. I selected the 60-watt equivalent (Kichler #777429) since that's the highest wattage that the lamp manufacturer recommended, and we needed all the light we could get where I was going to put it. It's kind of a funny shape, but it's hard to find flame-shaped bulbs with a standard base.

The lantern's wiring is connected to bared wires from the cannibalized extension cord using the wire nuts that came with the lamp.  Click for bigger photo.The Victorian lantern with the bulb screwed in and the cap and bass screwed on.  Click for bigger photo.I cut one end off an extension cord and removed about 2" of the "jacket" and about 5/8" of insulation on each internal wire. Knowing how to wire it was easy, since the wires in the lamp were black and white and the ground wire was bare. (The bare ground wire goes to the green wire, in case you wondered.)

If you're uncomfortable wiring this, get someone you know who is okay with it. I also tied a knot in the end of the extension cord that would sit under the base - that way someone or something snagging the wire wouldn't cause the wires to separate inside the lamp and cause a hazard.

The little Victorian lamps on our back porch railing.  Click for bigger photo.The next time it wasn't raining, I tried the thing outside. It looked good, but was A. not bright enough to light the whole area I wanted lit and B. too bright to sit on the porch railing by itself in an otherwise dark corner. So I decided it would get a 40w-equivalent bulb instead and a friend mounted about fifteen feet away.

At less than $40 for each lamp, that's not a bad price for a Christmas decoration that should last decades longer than the "official" Christmas decorations they sell in the store. Much less for something I can use year-round, whether on the back yard or otherwise.

The Snowman Cometh

Our new blow-mold snowman.  Click for bigger photo.

The same whimsical trend that gave birth to the blow-mold Santa I described in last months' newsletter also gave birth to a cutesy reindeer and a shy-looking snowman, both of which would be a good complement for the Santa.

A General Foam reindeer that has the same whimsical look as my blow-mold Santa.  Click for bigger photo.I first saw the reindeer at a flea market when I wasn't really sure I needed to expand my "collection" of one blow mold. But I kept him in mind, and after we had the old house sold and knew we'd be decorating for Christmas in a hurry at the new house, I started shopping for the reindeer. There were any number on eBay, but everyone selling one seemed to want more to ship the things than the cost of the object. Come on, they weigh about three pounds, how can they cost $20-$30 to ship? I can wait until I see one for a reasonable price.

On the same search, though, I came across the whimsical snowman. I had seen him before, as well, but this time, this seller was selling him for a reasonable price and offering free shipping. So I took the plunge. After multiple stops, he arrived from Ovid, New York about five days later.

Fortunately, all of the travel didn't ruin his cheery disposition. He is now greeting visitors who come in through the back door - the best kind.

Speaking of Coca Cola and Trains

Here's a link to a commercial that Coca Cola funded back in 2014. I never saw it on television, but I tend to DVR everything and zap commercials.

A still from Coca Cola's 2014 advertisement featuring a real Berkshire steam engine.  Click for bigger photo.At any rate, it's especially fun for me because it features a Nickel Plate Berkshire, the same model of engine as the Pere Marquette Berkshire that inspired the Polar Express. And it was my father's favorite locomotive, in part because his father used to drive one. To see the video, click the link below:

Still Hunting for Trains for Christmas?

If you are still shopping for a new train for your Christmas tree or holiday village, here is the link to a section of our November Trains-N-Towns newsletter (for BigIndoorTrains.com and BigChristmasTrains.com) that gives details on what was available when that was published.

Still Sorting Things Out From the Virtual Move

In addition to our physical move, we were forced to migrate all of our sites this past year. So we apologize for the broken links that are still around (every time I think I got them all . . . . ) Also, we had to truncate the names of most of our sites, taking out the www part. So if you try a site and it comes up saying that the site isn't safe or some such, try removing the www and it should work fine. Actually the message is erroneous and the site is perfectly safe, but the browsers don't all figure that out. Sorry about that.

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


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