Scrounging for Front Porch Fun

We actually don't buy much new, as a rule, so we didn't make a point of rushing out after Christmas and buying a fake $200 tree for $100 or the like. But in late in the spring of 2017, Shelia saw an $800-ish tree closed out at a Restoration Hardware outlet for $35. Turns out that magic lighting circuit that added to the list price didn't work, but the tree is still one of the nicest artificial Christmas trees you can buy. (And let's face it, the lights on all prelit trees go bad sooner or later.)

So, when it was time to start decorating for Christmas, we set out the Restoration Hardware tree, put a bag of gardening soil on the stand to keep the wind from blowing it over, and decorated it for Christmas. Red birds, wooden "cranberries," and a collection of odd metal stars Shelia got from a garage sale. There is no electrical circuit on that part of the porch, so we didn't bother putting lights on the tree.

To see a closeup that gives you an idea of how nice this tree looks, click the following link:

https://familychristmasonline.com/decorating/2017/outdoor_tree_closeup.jpg

Did I mention we moved last year and are still fixing things on the "new" house? On one of my trips to Home Depot late last fall, I went past the Christmas decorations to see if they had anything worth imitating or coming back for after Christmas. I saw a 3'-tall resin Santa, the kind that generally costs $100 or more, for $35.

Standing guard over the thing, I went onto Home Depot's web site with my smartphone to see if that was the "regular price." It wasn't anywhere on their site. In fact, I couldn't find a picture of the thing online at all (even after I got home and tried again). I'm guessing he was left-over stock from a couple of years ago, and had gotten lost in the back of the warehouse. Though I have a funny-looking blow-mold Santa on the back porch, I wondered if I could use this one somewhere. One thing was certain - if I left him there and went home to think about it, I wouldn't find him again. So I picked him up and carried him through the store, past several folks who did a double-take and asked me where I found him. "Sorry, he's the last one." Possibly the last one in the state.

If you can't see the Santa photo, please click the following link:

https://familychristmasonline.com/decorating/2017/resin_santa.jpg

As it turned out, my scrounged Santa looks really nice beside Shelia's scrounged Christmas tree. By the way, he has a battery compartment that lights a few little LEDs spread around the gifts, etc., but since it was so close to Christmas by the time I picked him up, and the tree wasn't lighted, I didn't bother. Maybe next year.

We added a few other pieces, including a "Joy" sign that Shelia and I had painted on old barn wood and used at the other house. Click on the photo to see a bigger picture. Really. You need to see this.

As a train buff, I still couldn't help thinking that the tree looked just a little naked without a train running around it. I set up a circle of track and put an old, inexpensive, but still attractive train on the track. (It's one of the original "Bachmann Big Haulers," in case you wondered - they started out using battery power.) By then, it was too cramped to actually run the train, so it was just for show, but you have to admit it looked nice. In case you wondered, those shutters behind the tree stay up all year 'round. They're covering a very ugly combination of electrical service boxes and meters. And, yes, they were a flea market find, so we don't have much into them, either.

In other words, if keep your eye out all year long, instead of just between Thanksgiving and Christmas, you can put together a pretty nice combination of things for far less than any one item "should" have cost you.

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

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Click the following link to view our December, 2016 newsletter:

http://familychristmasonline.com/fco_newsletter/16_12_c_times.htm

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