Train/Christmas Garden

good morning...here's a link that may help answer your querstion...

http://www.bigindoortrains.com...ains_n_christmas.htm

you'll have to scroll down to the section that deals with "garden trains"...

my very best regards...

howard...

http://www.littleglitterhouses.com

Walt
I think you get a Gold Star for your annual "Christmas Garden" undertaking!

Walt;
Just thought you'd be interested to know that the so-called "train garden phenomenon" is alive and well in the Baltimore-Washington area.

Walt,

The "village with trains" idea under the Christmas tree has many names. The Christmas putz is another name used that has Germanic roots.

Jim

It's pretty much a regional thing. Born and raised in Ohio, I never heard the term "Christmas Garden" used. Ditto for when I lived in Milwaukee, Dubuque, and Honolulu. When I moved to the Baltimore area, it was the most commonly used description for a Christmas train layout, and that pretty much applied for my time in the eastern part of Virginia. In the western part of that state, the term wasn't commonly used.

Call 'em anything you care to; just make sure you have one in your home every holiday season!

In the article on page 28, the term is used in describing a "Christmas Garden in 1941" and the guy is from Avalon, PA, moving on to Ben Avon, then Aspinwall, then Illinois, the California. Avalon, Ben Avon, and Aspinall are very close to where I live. We don't say "Christmas Garden" in the Pittsburgh area - to my knowledge at least - so I don't know why Mark Boyd used that term in his article.

The term 'train garden' is used at least twice in the Picture gallery on pages 20 and 21. No location is given.

At least I now know, thanks to you guys and the link that howard provided.

thanks - walt

I think we beat this to death about 3 or 4 years ago Walt, and basically determined it was a term mainly used here in Maryland and surrounding areas.

From Baltimore to Cambridge, and all the way down here to Berlin and Ocean City, we find ourselves putting up our "train gardens" at Christmas. Been that way since I was a kid, and I am 65. It probably was that way long before I was a kid, just a local thing I guess. That is what my father and his friends called them.

I find that when I post I use layout more and more and have moved away from using "garden." And we mostly seemed to associate snow scenes with Christmas gardens over the years around here.

Here is mine from this year. Hope this helps, Greg


Link to more of layout...... Train Garden 2012

My German grandfather, in Ridgewood, Queens, NYC, always had a Christmas Garden. It, as well as most at the time, did not include trains. I display a B&W photo of it during Christmas.

Any chance the term "train garden" has something to do with the origination of the term "lash up"?????

Greg, I would guess that 3 or 4 years ago I might have ignored a thread on 'x' gardens, never having heard the term at that time.

Thanks for clarifying that it seems to be totally local to your area.

I love your Christmas Garden . Very colorful.

- walt