To Christmas or Not to Christmas

I keep on planning on a Year Round Winter Themed Layout, with sprinklings of Christmas Through Out. Perhaps you could look into doing something like that. That way it isn't all Christmas All the Time, since not everyone is a big fan of Christmas, though ultimately it would be up to what you want to do.

Either Way, that looks like the concept of what I would like to be able to do, but alas I currently don't have the room or the time right now for it.

i've never had a permanent layout and I change my Christmas layout every year.  Every must be removable and usually re-useable too.  Can you do that on a permanent layout?

Look up forum member Suzukovich and his layout named Winterton.

It's a well done "winter" layout. He has posted numerous videos over the years.

RickO posted:

Look up forum member Suzukovich and his layout named Winterton.

It's a well done "winter" layout. He has posted numerous videos over the years.

I took a look at his layout. It is excellent.  

You can always build scenery on modules and just swap out after Christmas.

-Greg

Why not have BOTH winter and  Christmas themes and just switch out the buildings/details seasonly, thus having the BEST of both worlds? ☺

I agree with Greg,  Tinplate and the others favoring a dual layout. 

And there's nothing wrong with a year round Christmas. 

Hey, Christmas can't be more than 365 days away.

My layout is Christmas all year long.

Perhaps my approaches here may be something to consider.

In these layout efforts of mine, I expressed Christmas, even the Wintery effect, as purely temporary, portable arrays of details. That is, the decorations on and around buildings were removed after the Holidays; the parade, in my imagination ("generously" applied )  and handiwork is something of a "Macy's Thanksgiving Day/Rose Bowl-type parade," which was removed or changed in its expression over the years; even the snow on the rooftops was glued permanently onto insert-plates and removed afterwards when the layout was converted back to a non-snowy, non-Christmas theme; snow on groundcovers and foliage was vacuumed away.

FrankM

Awesome as usual, Frank.

Greg Houser posted:

You can always build scenery on modules and just swap out after Christmas.

-Greg

You don't even need full modules. You can sub structures, trees, and various other accessories on a winter layout (not to mention the trains themselves) and all of the sudden you have what becomes a Christmas layout for a couple of months or so. After the holidays, change it back to a winter layout.

And if someone builds a really nice layout in O gauge that adheres to that "dual theme" concept, document the heck out of it with hi-res photos; send them to me at the magazine; and get yourself $400 and enough comp copies of the issue the layout appears in to provide a lasting family momento for generation after generation.

Allan Miller posted:

You can sub structures, trees, and various other accessories on a winter layout (not to mention the trains themselves) and all of the sudden you have what becomes a Christmas layout for a couple of months or so. After the holidays, change it back to a winter layout.

Just like at 1:1 scale. 

I think you can mix Xmas and winter year round.  There are a number of layouts built that way.  While corporate policy doesn’t allow this Xmas layout displayed year round, we do take down the big tree and just winter it for a few weeks in January.  

Great question. Thanks for starting this thread. I love the winter/Christmas layout idea. Friends and family talked me into a summer time for mine. There are suggestions here that I might be able to figure out ways to temporarily "winterize" my layout. I will explore this. It could be fun.

All the layouts here look great. Really appreciate the photo's

Tom