It's way off topic, but it tis the season ...
BillJones
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Each Christmas I set up a large display of Christmas buildings and figures. The topics include my family and favorite holiday movies. Here are few photos to get started. If there is more interest I’ll post more.
My father was known as “Jones, the Holly Wreath Man.” His company manufactured holly, russcus and lycopodium wreaths and shipped to locations all over the United States. He took over the business from his father and expanded it to a much larger scale. One year he custom made a wreath that was 20 feet in diameter that hung on the front of the Radio City Music Hall. Another year his company supplied the wreaths that hung in the background for The Ed Sullivan Show. He made a really good living at it from the mid 1940s until the late 1950s. Then tastes changed. To honor of that I put up this display every year.
The house in the background is very similar to the Victorian era home where my father grew up. My grandmother is seated selling the wreaths, although that would have been pure fiction. She was far more interested in driving and shopping than selling wreaths. She was one of the first women in town to get a driver's license.
The next two pictures show photos show scenes from “A Christmas Story” which one of my favorite holiday films. Although none of this stuff are collectors’ items, the scene with Santa pushing Ralphie down the slide might be close. Department 56 only offered that one for one year.
The last picture is scenes from "A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. The best film version of this holiday story was shot in England in the early 1950s. It stared Alastair Sim as Scrooge. As Leonard Maltin wrote in his review, “This film is too good to be viewed only during the holidays.
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Merry Christmas Bill!..now give us an aerial shot of the town
You're right.......................tis the Season................I like it!
Pete
You can do it, Bill...............just add a small landing pad and buy a helicopter!
Pete
Great collection and memories.... and thanks for reminding me. I have to go to the storage unit today and go through my mom's collection of Dept 56 houses... she had about 200-300 hundred of them.
I use to set up an 8x11 display every year for her next to her tree. Its time for me to take over the tradition.
A Christmas classic and a very nice set-up!
"Aha, the Bumpus hounds! Da-da-da-da-da-daah! Our hillbilly neighbors, the Bumpuses had over 785 smelly hound dogs, and they ignored every other human being on earth except my old man!"
http://www.moviequotes.com/fullquote.cgi?qnum=972
It would have been cool to make the "deleted scene featured Ralphie fighting Ming the Merciless with Flash Gordon" The missing scene starts in Ralphie’s room as he finds one of his Flash Gordon comics and begins dreaming about saving Flash from the evil Ming the Merciless on a distant, alien planet. The editors forgot to take the names of the actors who played Ming and Flash in the missing scene out of the closing credits, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
http://thefw.com/things-you-didnt-know-about-a-christmas-story/
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Merry Christmas Bill.. the spirit of Christmas is never off topic for me.
Wow! Two hundred to 300 Department 56 houses! My wife would shoot me if I had that many. At least some them can decorate the shelves year round which keeps her happier.
Here is a night view of the "Christmas Story" set.
RE: "...the scene with Santa pushing Ralphie down the slide might be close."
Was Ralphie a bad kid ? Did the original display have a flaming pit at the bottom of the side?
Nicely done Mr. Jones.
Its where I got my collector genes...
As for a "Christmas Story" I use to be friends with Flick...
No, Ralphie wasn't a bad kid. He just fixin' "to shot his eye out" with his Range Rover rifle. according to Santa and just about everyone else.
Great story and pictures Bill.:)
That is an amazing amount of work and attention to detail. Very cool! Thanks for sharing it.
Pretty neat although I would have expected silver bars as the sidewalk
This is pretty neat , it reminds me of these little buildings and villages my uncle used to make for a huge HO scale train layout he had set up in his basement
I like it - we always do a little village under the tree but nothing like that level of detail!
With your background, add a coin store or a bourse.
Well let me lay in some holiday music for the thread.
That's quite a bit of work to assemble, great job, Happy Holidays !!!
Bill, that is a real cool display. My brother in law and fellow coin collector sets up a couple of small Christmas villages.
Thanks for sharing the scenes and the memories, which is the best part.
Merry Christmas!!!
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Cool thread!
Loved your post Bill, Special that you have carried on a family tradition. This is the season for rembrance of those that preceeded us.
And Merry Christmas, Bill. We love your posts.
OINK
Bill, I really enjoyed your postings on this thread. In my community a local hotel pastry chef has for each of the past 39 years recreated with gingerbread and frosting a village also honoring "A Christmas Carol." Here is the just completed one for this year.
It is a one person project and it takes up to two weeks to complete. Here are a few photos of its building that began back during Thanksgiving week.
Great stuff!
A Christmas Story is such a charming film.
We watch it every year.
My mother-in-law says that I look like Darren McGavin...and my daughter says I share his character's vocabulary...lol
Northcoin, Savannah, Georgia has a similar gingerbread village in one of their major hotels. I saw it a couple of years ago.
Most of the set up around the tree is dedicated to the Polar Express. Here is a scene with the “leadership girl” waiting to get on the train.
Mean while Clark Griswall ("National Lampoor's Christmas Vacation") is trying to get his lights to work.
While the Grinch lurks in the background.
Great displays..... And a nice family tradition Bill.... That Gingerbread display is huge and complex... I would think they save the 'houses' from year to year.... Cheers, RickO
This is a great tradition! I love the holiday spirit and creativity. Thanks for posting these Bill.
Here is a picture of my father's first Radio City Wreath from the early 1950s. He made another one, that was built on a plywood base, circa 1956.
Very nice Bill. Thanks for sharing and Merry Christmas.
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Great pic of your Dad, Bill, and beautiful story.
Tom
Cool very nice to see some nice Christmas stuff after seeing so much heat, fire, smoke and wind here in So Cal.
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As a preschooler I remember going to see the Rockettes in New York City. It was Christmas season 1952. If that wreath was hanging there in 1952 I would have seen it, My dad used to take lots of slides (I am sure some here still remember what "slides" were) and it wouldn't be out of the question that somewhere one of my siblings has a slide showing the hanging wreath.)
That is a good question. If I see Joe again I'll try to find out. My assumption has been that the gingerbread houses are baked fresh each year and that the set pieces are reused. (Note Joe is the Pastry Chef for the hotel.)
...it’s really good to see you finally caved-in and grabbed some ‘Christmas Vacation’ add on’s for your village! Clark Griswold has the heart of a good American...and Cousin Eddie is always a hoot as well
Department 56 has a whole series of 'Christmas Vacation' houses and figures, but the 'Christmas Story' series started first and, and my wife thought that would look good in the china cabinet.
My wife also does not like 'Christmas Vacation' because I think the depiction of some family members hits too close to home. I think it hits home with some people in my family too, but that is one of the reasons why I like the film. I thought about adding the “Cousin Eddie’s Christmas Present to Clark” figure this year to sit next to the Elvis Mansion, but that will have to wait another year.
Some of the best displays I have ever seen.
Great thread!
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Neat stuff, @BillJones. My mom passed down her Department 56 Dickens Village stuff to me. My daughter and I put it up every Christmas and it's the highlight (to me, anyway) of the holidays.
Gingerbread pastry houses can be stored and re-used for two or three years. We had one that lasted that long, but you had to be careful with the trim because it was very fragile. I rather imagine that the displays, like the one that was pictured earlier, are done fresh every year.
Yes, I really enjoy the Dickens Village series. I only wish I had more room to expand upon it. I’d like to do a “nephew Fred’s house” except I’d use another other than one with that name.
Lemax came out with very nice Scrooge house this year that is more attractive than the Department 56 version and sturdier too. In general Lemax electronic products are better than Department 56, and of course Lemax is almost always cheaper and more widely discounted.
indeed this is pretty darned awesome
Great thread!
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Awesome thread! No Christmas display is complete until you have Gingerbread Houses and trains!
Later, Paul.
Very cool, thanks for sharing...
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Cool thread, but shouldn't there be a miniature B&M coin shop somewhere in the town?
I have one in my HO layout, but not in the Christmas village. I have built kits for all but two of my HO buildlings, and you can modify those with signs and paint, but the lit village pieces are not so easily changed.
This is dedicated to the Worthy Coin Shop which was in Boston. It was run by the late Don Romano.
Looks like a nice HO layout. Welcome seeing more of it.
We must be on the lazy side at our house. We use the Hallmark Victorian house ornaments when we set up a little town.
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Fun thread. I love this stuff.