Bluerauder
12-14-2008, 07:07 AM
Christmas Gardens and Train Sets
There was an article in today’s newspaper about Christmas Train Sets making a comeback. Brings back lots of memories for me. Here’s mine …..
When I was young, my family always set up a “Christmas Garden”. It seemed to be pretty common in Baltimore where I grew up. The garden was basically a 4’ by 8’ sheet of ½” plywood (painted green) with a ¼” by 1” lip running around the perimeter. The plywood sheet set on two wooden saw horses to elevate it off the floor about 18”. It seemed much higher when I was little. We used decorative brick paper around the outside to hide all the decoration boxes that were stored underneath.
We set up the biggest oval “O”-gauge track for our Lionel train set that would fit on the board/garden. The Christmas tree stand and tree :xtree: were located in the corner at one end so the train would pass around the back and under the tree. When I was about 10 years old, I added an “HO” train set that ran inside the bigger track. I spent hours just playing with the trains in the days before Christmas. The Lionel would smoke. There were a few good train wrecks as I recall. :o
My grandfather made a 6” white picket fence that went about 3/4 around the garden. The fence served to keep the younger kids out of the garden. For the most part this was successful. However, one nephew found that he could climb “though” a double swinging gate at one end. What a mess that was. After that, the gate had a latch on the back side. The fence itself was a real work-of-art with intermediate and corner posts made of 1” by 6” wood. Each one-piece green post had a 1” red ball that Pop had cut on a lathe. Each fence section was arched and each picket had an ornamental top. Pop could make nearly anything out of wood or metal. I still have the fence (about 60 years old now) and made my own garden but I haven’t set it up in years since my kids are grown.
The garden was decorated with a mountain at the rear, train station in front, church, and several houses that had been hand made by firemen (my Dad and Grandfather were both firemen) as they occupied their time on the night shift. Some were real masterpieces. Made from cardboard and paper stock with windows and front porches made of wooden match sticks, some of these hand-made house would put the current molded plastic ones to shame. Each house was lit with a bulb that came up from under the board to give them that lights on look. Wish I had kept those houses – especially the church and the train station.
Finally, the garden was completed with roads, people, cars, etc and then covered with snow (not the plastic kind). With the tree and the houses lit, the entire scene looked like the proverbial Winter Wonderland. :snowman:
That is probably one of my best memories of Christmas Past. Anyone else have a Christmas Garden or similar set-up?
:wreath:
:santaw:
There was an article in today’s newspaper about Christmas Train Sets making a comeback. Brings back lots of memories for me. Here’s mine …..
When I was young, my family always set up a “Christmas Garden”. It seemed to be pretty common in Baltimore where I grew up. The garden was basically a 4’ by 8’ sheet of ½” plywood (painted green) with a ¼” by 1” lip running around the perimeter. The plywood sheet set on two wooden saw horses to elevate it off the floor about 18”. It seemed much higher when I was little. We used decorative brick paper around the outside to hide all the decoration boxes that were stored underneath.
We set up the biggest oval “O”-gauge track for our Lionel train set that would fit on the board/garden. The Christmas tree stand and tree :xtree: were located in the corner at one end so the train would pass around the back and under the tree. When I was about 10 years old, I added an “HO” train set that ran inside the bigger track. I spent hours just playing with the trains in the days before Christmas. The Lionel would smoke. There were a few good train wrecks as I recall. :o
My grandfather made a 6” white picket fence that went about 3/4 around the garden. The fence served to keep the younger kids out of the garden. For the most part this was successful. However, one nephew found that he could climb “though” a double swinging gate at one end. What a mess that was. After that, the gate had a latch on the back side. The fence itself was a real work-of-art with intermediate and corner posts made of 1” by 6” wood. Each one-piece green post had a 1” red ball that Pop had cut on a lathe. Each fence section was arched and each picket had an ornamental top. Pop could make nearly anything out of wood or metal. I still have the fence (about 60 years old now) and made my own garden but I haven’t set it up in years since my kids are grown.
The garden was decorated with a mountain at the rear, train station in front, church, and several houses that had been hand made by firemen (my Dad and Grandfather were both firemen) as they occupied their time on the night shift. Some were real masterpieces. Made from cardboard and paper stock with windows and front porches made of wooden match sticks, some of these hand-made house would put the current molded plastic ones to shame. Each house was lit with a bulb that came up from under the board to give them that lights on look. Wish I had kept those houses – especially the church and the train station.
Finally, the garden was completed with roads, people, cars, etc and then covered with snow (not the plastic kind). With the tree and the houses lit, the entire scene looked like the proverbial Winter Wonderland. :snowman:
That is probably one of my best memories of Christmas Past. Anyone else have a Christmas Garden or similar set-up?
:wreath:
:santaw: