Why is it so hard to find?

[Sickie Ickie]

Why is it so hard to find how-to's on Christmas scene props? With Halloween, it's a snap. Maybe it's just me...lights are fine, but scenes are what draws my imagination in. Isn't that why malls have displays? And who was it here who had the great memory of an animated Santa playing piano?

That's why I have so much enthusiasm for this site. With the majority of people here haunters, we're already used to scenes and will be pioneers in this field!

[Elvira]

I don't know, it really shouldn't be that hard, there is alot of themes a person can do. Lots of different things one can build. I guess its probably a personal preference tho, spooky vs. magical I do love them both but I think ppl find it more fun to do spooky, and thats why you find endless how-to's for halloween.

[putrid]

I guess it depends on how you look at it. Your room could be a scene if it's theemed. All these cool Christmas towns are scenes. A Nativity could be a scene. But I do understand what you mean. ( wow that rhymes, kinda scary LOL) Unlike Halloween where you have a vast number of things that scare the stuff out of ya Christmas has three main themes. Jesus, Santa and winter. And unlike Halloween, Christmas props don't tend stand out on there own. They're smaller and meant to be part of something. For the most part the tree. Which is the main focal point in most homes. To complicate matters even farther most Christmas props are bought, not hand made. Limiting creativity to what's on hand instead of what could be done. Halloween is just the opposite. I think the more folks that get involved with forums like this and sites like yours the more that will change. We could be on the first steps in changing Christmas decorating as we know it. Kinda make you wana take a deep breath don't it. LOL

[Brightside]

I argee, SI. Props are SO much more fun than just lights. I have TONS of ideas. I just don't know when I will be able to get to them...... a wiper motor Christmas Carasel, A wiper motor Christmas Faris wheel, a large scale Christmas Train and on and on. I just have to get my boss, my wife, my son and my not yet born daughter to realize that daddy needs more time in the workshop. :)

[Sickie Ickie]

more time? I hear ya there, man!

[Mistress Muffy]

Me! Me! Me!....I'm the one with the wonderful memory of the animated Piano playing Santa!!! He was in one of the Chicago suburbs and for Xmas they all decorated & it was called Candy Lane. Those people built huge boxes w/ acrylic panels & put their displays inside the box and it was all lit up. I can't remember if there was lighting inside the box or if there was a floodlight shining on it.

Muf

Muf

[Sickie Ickie]

I knew it held special memories. :)

[Xmaslilly]

I think it is harder to do Xmas themes than Halloween. maybe because I like Halloween better and want to put more time into that instead.
There ya go Sickie start you rown little Christmas walk thru..
I just don't have another garage to store what would be needed for something like that. And I'm not giving up my Hallo space ahah.
But here are some that come to mind, than just the 3 Putrid mentioned,
you could make your whole yard penguins on ice with skating snowmen also.
the furry creatures (bunnies, deer, birds etc) scene with trees all decorated up.
the gingerbread house with bakers and elf helpers
you could do the Rudolph scene with that abominable snowman guy and all those guys.
what else can you think of??


Briteside..I'm on another Xmas forum and one lady there does the Ferris wheel thing ,she also has a train track and stuff.. but she works on that all yr ..I don't think she does any Halloween decorating

[Mummy deer-est]

I love NJWilk's idea for the christmas train and scenes that went with it -- a depot, passing by the Reindeer Flight School, the North Pole stop, etc. I like the idea of doing polar bears. You could do angels. It would be funny to do a beach santa theme in a colder climate....just something out of the ordinary, like Santa lounging in a beach chair and umbrella....Mrs. Clause in a bikini. LOL!

[putrid]

My wife would never let me do an animated Santa. He'd be looking over his shoulder at you, waving and saying,
" Ho HO Ho, Just writing my name in the snow."
Would that count as a Christmas scene?

Xmaslilly, a Christmas walk through? I read that and my brain lit up like a tree! What a totally cool idea! However it would have inherent problems such as what day or days to open and the weather itself. Around here it's mud, snow or ice. Not real safe for folks to walk on. How would you keep on lookers from inviting themselves any day? Would you have everything up all season or construct then take down props just for the walk through? As with Halloween would the use of live actors benefit the overall walk through? Way to many questions to ask in one post? LOL I think it would be magic if done right. We have a Christmas drive through here in town. A church has a living Nativity with animals and all. You stay warm in your car no matter what the weather. Thanks Xmaslilly, I'll be thinking of the possibilities all night at work! Totally cool idea!

[Sickie Ickie]

A walk though would e neat! Especially with elves and santa and ???

[woodmizer]

My wife and I have been talking for the last year about doing a X-mas walk thru for charity. I think it would be a big hit.

[Sickie Ickie]

wow. I really like that idea!

[Mummy deer-est]

You could do a christmas countdown prop, but have it countdown to the day you would do the walkthrough....and post a sign with the "open" days.

[Nephew Fred]

We have a Christmas Walk-thrus here in Las Vegas.It benifits a charity organization.
Its called "Magical Forest", and is set in a very large grove of pine trees. A minature stream trains winds thru is as does paths.There is a merry-go-round and slide too.The sell hot chocolate and churros in the litttle food grove area.There are lights everywhere and differnet Christmas scenes fill in the spaces between the trees.Sorry I do not have any pics of this ,as I did not get to go this year. :( The weather here is cold in December , but no snow and we usually do not have too many days of rain.

[putrid]

Well, gave it a good thinking last night. A walk through in the month of Nov. in mid Mo. isn't a good idea. An out door one anyway. What if there was a way to decorate a house so over the top, so decked out and extravagant that there's no way you could do it at home. Walk from room to room with every inch of it like eye candy. So many lights so well done they'd have to be on dimmer switches. Live actors, motion props, the works. The fire code would be your first obstacle. All the wiring needed would be an electricians nightmare. Not to mention the cost of running. There's one thing for sure, you wouldn't need a heater. LOL. Then the cost of trees and decorations. Unlike a haunted house where anything can be spray painted black and gray the furnishings would have to look the part. The place would cost a small fortune to do right. And you would have to go over the top and do it right the first time. Be the only way to get folks talking and looking forward to paying to see it again. If any part of it was something they could do at home they'd tell folks to stay away. It wouldn't be an easy thing to pull off. You would have to have multiple organizations working together. With a complete understanding that nothing could be cheese. Man it'd be a piece of work to pull off.

Thinking wile I type. LOL The furnishings could be donated from a fine furniture store. What better way to showcase a 5K couch.

Decorations can be pieced together from donations. Cat damaged trees ( broken branches and the like.) can be fixed or made into garlands and wreaths. Old ornaments can be given new life. Would take a staff of talented folks.

Oh well, I'll stop typing but not dreaming to keep this post from becoming a small book. LOL

[Sickie Ickie]

...or...what about a walk through the elves's workshop? Or Santa's life timeline? or a storyline like "Santa, there's a problem!" Then through different scenes of following Santa, he fixes the problem?

Not lots of money, but lots of imagination. :)

[bethene]

were I live a out door walk thru definately would not be good, we get lake effect snow at the drop of a hat. Props like the penguins skating , and other animated props would be great, but I am a newbie at the halloween ones, am working on those first, maybe then can take the info and turn it into a animated x-mas prop. will be keeping that in the back of my mind while working thru everything. A walk thru Xmas house would be fun and interesting!

[Xmaslilly]

Y I agree it would take a small army to pull a good one off.
I think some kind of sledding place, or ice rink seems perfect. sled down to each set up. or have the sets around the ice rink.
I think it has to be something where the people actually go.
Maybe a stocking walk ..like trick or treating instead, then you could do say an elves workshop, the cookie house etc.
I know when we were kids we were outside no matter how cold it was..we would have done that..we did do caroling to get money and stuff.

[Mummy deer-est]

I would have totally loved a stocking walk, lilly! That would be so fun!

[putrid]

That'd be some bid stockings! LOL And sledding, a good way to brake your cookies. JK LOL But it would be cool for a charity org. Bring a stocking full of non perishables and can goods to get in. Use the stocking to get candy wile your there. This is getting totally cool.

[Xmaslilly]

ha-ha P..well you could carry a couple and when they are full just hang them from your belt...Good idea for the charity thing too..
The kids could dress up in Xmas characters to do this, would be cool to see rudolph and a bunch of elves , maybe penguins, polarbears,candy canes etc., I'm sure some grinches in there too.

[ShellBell]

"My wife would never let me do an animated Santa. He'd be looking over his shoulder at you, waving and saying,
" Ho HO Ho, Just writing my name in the snow."
Would that count as a Christmas scene?"
Now that would be funny

[Mistress Muffy]

I was wondering if any of you saw a show a couple of years ago on the HCTV network. It was a competition between I think 4 families to come up w/ a theme and build a outdoor xmas display. They were all great but there was one that was phenominal. It was an outdoor winter snow scene in the middle of I think Florida. No wait....wrong show.....this was on another show where designors came in & did a xmas scene for homeowners. The homeowners wanted something unusual.

They brought in some white stuff that looked like snow and draped the WHOLE yard so that is looked liked it was covered with 2 ft of snow.. They put in a real ice skating rink that these peoples kids could skate on.There were different props they built to go along with the theme. All I remember is that it was like something I have never seen before. I'm mad I did not pay better attention because since I saw it I can't stop thinking about it.

I think if ya have the time & money you can propbaly build anything. WIth Halloween its easier because there is so much out there for inspiration. I think with Xmas its more of a task because ya have to have some imagination. I would love to do something really different for Xmas that would catch peoples eye instead of just the "Usual" type of things. I'm workin on that gingerbread idea for both inside & outside. I have a small collection of pictures & notes to get me started.

Another decorating show a few yrs. ago had 2 decorators decorate the inside of a dining room & turn it into the inside of a gingerbread house. I was fascinated the way they did it. Took styrofoam panels & cut them to fit the interior walls. Then she used that artificial cake decorating frosting and made rows & rows of differnt xmas candies and stuck them in place using the frosting as a glue. It literally transformed the whole room. Somewhere in my junk I have the photos & DYI might still have some pics posted from that episode.

Yup for sure I'd like to do that. I have made some blueprints already of that project and would just do it in stages. I ordered the Winfield stuff to make the smaller candies like the ones on my front porch.

I'll be sure to shoot photos as we start working on these projects. Last year we had a lot planned but there was to much going on here so we were not able to pull a lot off...hopefully this year we will do better with devoting more time to our projects

Muf

[bethene]

Muffy, that sounds like a awesome idea, can't wait to see what you do with it! I agree halloween is easier, so many more themes to go with.

[putrid]

Totally cool ideas Mistress Muffy. Be cool to see the pictures of your progress.

Speaking from experience I think Halloween is easier because ugly and drab are real easy to do. Darkness and colored lights help hide and add to the simple stuff. Were Christmas props and decorations have to look good and be seen in bright or good lighting. And you can be as sloppy as you want with the Halloween stuff. It'll only add to it. Can't do that with Christmas stuff. If its sloppy it just looks bad.