Still a touch of Christmas at our house

I keep my Christmas layout up typically until Super Bowl.  After that, I partially dismantle it removing the Christmas themed stuff and then I setup a winter display that I keep up until mid April or so.  Between April and November my trains get a rest.  I have a second inexpensive passion, horses, that keep me busy from May until the end of October.

I like the way your O and HO are put together.  Having the HO behind the O adds depth.  

Tony

Kountry Mailman,

   I am with you big time, I keep our Christmas Train Layout up about 2 months all total, my favorite time of the year, and the Christmas layout is part of our family tradition.

PCRR/Dave

r

Lookin' good,guys!

Norm

I still have our layout up too, and am in no hurry to take it down.

Mike

Christmas only comes once a year and its here only for a short time. I like the idea, you people still have your Christmas train layout up. It the greatest time of the year. Enjoy. Hang onto it, as long as you can.

Any reason to run trains is good enough.  Now if you can hijack some permanent floor space that's a big bonus.  "Needing to do repairs" or "planning for next year" are the two I like best. 

Of course, I can always play the 2 yr old grandson trump card on any discussion that is not train friendly.

I love it! We just took down our Christmas tree and decorations this weekend so I'm glad to see the reminder.

-Greg

From what I have heard in the "Anglican Usage" part of the Catholic Church, one can leave Christmas stuff out until Candlemas, Feb. 2.

I told my Dear wife the Pope has trains and his stay up until Easter! Probably calling the Vatican about now!

Yep, we leave our Christmas tree and train up until the last weekend of January. I love that layout, so I figure we should get at least two months per year out of it. I did remove the tree early one year, but the layout just looked so empty without it, so I won't do that again.

I normally take down my Christmas layout during the month of March. I still have visitors that wants to see my operating carnival/fair and trains run!!...............rogerw.

Scrambler81 posted:

Yep, we leave our Christmas tree and train up until the last weekend of January. I love that layout, so I figure we should get at least two months per year out of it. I did remove the tree early one year, but the layout just looked so empty without it, so I won't do that again.

When I remove the Christmas from my display and make it a winter scene, I fill in the void left by the tree with more buildings and trees.  I have mostly Lemax stuff from Michaels and some of the pieces are not decorated specifically for Christmas.  Those get to stay out (or come out).  I also add some Lionel and MTH buildings and a few of the post war items (rotary beacon, yard light tower and #30 water tower) my dad got as a kid.  The result is not nearly as nice as the Christmas display but it extends the time I get with the trains.  It also helps that I play the grandson card as one other person here mentioned.

I built a completely new display this year.  Once the reconfiguring is done, I will post a before and after pic or 2 here.

I've even contemplated a Halloween display that I transition to Thanksgiving themed to Christmas...   I never seem to have the time at the end of September or the beginning of October to do it.  I also don't know what to do about colors.  The base of my Christmas display is white and I don't see that working for a Halloween/Thanksgiving display.  That would be a topic for a different thread...

Tony

Very nice!

Peter

I normally keep my Christmas Layout up until the weekend after Super Bowl, but this year I've been instructed by the CEO that she wants the living room painted now. So the layout came down this past weekend.

Gentlemen,

   Each family has it's own time table for their Christmas layout, ours kind of varies depending on what is going on here at the home front, with wife's Christmas Orchestra Schedule's, along with her Quartet Christmas music arrangements, and of course with the work I am doing in the house.  The new floor in the game room this winter, kind of altered the time table for decorating the house, and setting up the Christmas Train layout this time.  This will definitely extend how long the layout stay up, after the end of January this year.  2 years ago I had a year old Gun Dog I was training during most of January, and the layout stayed up until almost the end of Feb, Mom was definitely wanting her formal living room back by that time.    I do miss our multi-level game room/office layout, that we had up, for over 10 years, however it's just not possible to have it any more, with all the different responsibilities we have now.

PCRR/Dave

The Christmas Erie 3444 Hobo Chase Car addition, to the new Hallmark/Lionel Santa Toy Maker Express Train, my Christmas present from my wife this Christmas.

still have ours up...and no sign of coming down yet.

Christmas is still going strong at my home. We keep the tree and trains up till the beginning of February. This is a snapshot of my layout this year. O-54 mainline with elevated O-31 track and a small 0-54 yard off to the right. The total layout is 94"/74" on the O-54 mainline. The locomotives pictured are all MTH. The diesel is a Railing scale Bessemer. The Two steamers facing the picture are a WM H-9 and a NYC 1938 20th century limited. Both Premier. The final locomotive pictured is a Imperial NYC P-47 Pacific. The buildings are a mix of Dept. 56 and MTH.