Christmas in Miniature

by Mary Jo

There is something very charming about miniatures--ask any doll collector.  The beautiful Cotswold village of Bourton-on-the-Water is famous for having a detailed model of the village itself--and there is even a model within the model. <G>

And in the Baltimore area, we have Christmas train gardens!  The idea was new to me when I moved to Maryland, but train garden charm is irresistible.  They were often in firehouses, where the firefighters used time between calls to do the painstaking work of setting up elaborate landscapes of town and country and multiple trains.

A small mall near me, the Shops at Kenilworth, turns off the fountain in the middle of the structure so that a wonderfully elaborate train garden can be built. (Image above.) Each year it changes, and local sites may be included. This year's display had a whole section devoted to waterfront activities such as the port of Baltimore, one of the largest ports on the East Coast.  Note the coal barge moored by the coal depot.

Some of the businesses in the mall help sponsor the project, which is huge and time consuming.  The train garden is also really good for business: in the weeks it's open, the large display is surrounded by children of all ages and older men reminisce about the family trains of their youth.  Such fun for all!  To the left is a baseball game, probably the Orioles.

A whole gingerbread village was added this year, and picture of one part of it is below the football game.

And everywhere there are trains--at least half a dozen different tracks with trains of different styles and configurations whizzing on their way.

Does your community have anything like this? I've heard that Pittsburgh, an industrial city somewhat similar to Baltimore, also has train gardens, but when I googled, all the hits were in Maryland.  And justly so, since Baltimore is the cradle of the American railroad industry, and has a terrific railroad museum to prove it. 

What fun, unique things does your community do to celebrate the holidays?  The world may be drawing closer in many ways, but every community has its own characteristics and history--and sometimes, train gardens. <G>

Mary Jo

 

Comments

[Barbara Kuterbach]

I live in Juneau, Alaska and it is traditional here to attend a performance of the musical play "A King's Island's Christmas".

[Karin]

I haven't been to see it, but the New York Botanical Gardens does a train display for Christmas. I love model trains!

[Sonya Heaney]

Here in Canberra we’ve held the world record for Christmas lights for years – and have broken it every year except the last one, when we took a break!

It started as a world-record display at a private home (and HUGE private home in our richest suburb!), but when it turned into a world media event with closed streets and security, the family agreed it needed to be moved into the city centre. :)

I think this link will take you to some pictures: goo.gl/Cvi5Kn

I still have Ukrainian Christmas coming up at the end of the week, and there are a million traditions there. One of them is that there MUST be twelve dishes served!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Barbara, I'd never heard of this so I googled, and what a GREAT story! And absolutely rooted in the far north as the King Islanders in the Bering Sea work to save their Christmas. Thank you for telling me about that.

[Mary Jo Putney]

Karin, that sounds like a train garden to me, and definitely something you should see sometime!

[Mary Jo Putney]

Good heavens, Sonya, the lights are AMAZING! I love looking Christmas lights, and that's almost worth making the loooooooong flight to Australia for. *G*

Twelve dishes are a lot--does the Ukrainian tradition have the Twelve Days of Christmas?--but I think twelve different dishes might be easier than the Italian seven different fishes on Christmas Eve. (The Mayhem consultant is half Italian so while I didn't do seven fishes, I did make shrimp scampi and gave him seven large shrimp. *G*)

[Joanna Bourne]

I will have to recommend this to a friend who lives in NYC.

Or go myself someday when I'm in NYC for Christmas. I love little places.

[Sue McCormick]

I agree, the display is marvelous.

[Sue McCormick]

We frequently drive through Columbia looking at the light displays. I must admit that we "collect" both the very beautiful and those we think are in the WORST taste.

When I was growing up in St. Louis, and also in m children's childhood there, several business showed trains, often very elaborate one, but I don't believe we every had anything like train gardens.