6th Annual Christmas Tree Build - 2021 Edition

It's not fake. It's artificial.

 

Regardless, it's still acting like a real tree and shedding everywhere...

 

We never felt like our privacy was being violated during the nearly nine years that we lived there, but the neighbor's kid was definitely no Billy Joel or Elton John on that piano; Thankfully, he was only playing the piano, and not the drums or the saxophone!

 

I was in a grunge band! Lol

 

I am surprised at the poll results, artificial vs real.

 

A lot of people I know have artificial trees now; In some cases it's due to allergies (I know at least one of my cousins is allergic to real Christmas trees), and in a lot of cases it's matter of getting old and not wanting to deal with the hassle of picking up a real tree, taking it home, and setting it up.

You have to put real trees in water so they'll stay greener longer; My parents were both in their late forties when we got out last real tree, in 2007. One of the reasons for getting an artificial tree in 2008 that my dad gave was not wanting to scratch up the roof of his vehicle anymore. In 2008, we had a 1996 Nissan Pathfinder that had been promised to me once I got my license, a 2004 Honda Odyssey, and a brand new 2008 Acura TL; The Pathfinder had been the tree hauler since Christmas 2000, since my dad had gotten rid of his last pickup (a 1990 Mazda B-series) in May of that year.

In August 2009, I finally got my learner's permit, but by then the Pathfinder was an aging gas guzzler with over 100K that seemed to be nickel-and-diming every year at inspection time. My dad said that, within reason, he'd be willing to buy me a new vehicle. I wasn't picky; It had to be a pickup truck or another SUV, it had to have A/C, and it had to have an iPod hookup. The 2010 Tacoma that I still have fit all of those categories, and we took delivery on September 30th, 2009; The irony here is that less than a year after buying an artificial tree, we bought the ultimate Christmas tree hauling vehicle!

 

I'll check on them today lol

 

This year, Christmas in the City is going on the dining room table!

 

Most of these pieces are at least twenty years old, with the oldest ones being purchased in 1999 and 2000; This piece, part of the Christmas tree stand set, was a gift from my grandma in 2000. The wife has actually been broken for a couple years now, but I finally fixed her broken legs with some superglue...

 

The newest piece in my collection, a gift from my parents, was purchased in 2005; My parents and I all agreed that the city needed a church, and my mom bought St. Paul's Cathedral in either 2003 or 2004...

I glued the cross back to the roof just now!

 

The Wintergarten Cafe was the first building my parents bought back in 1999, along with a police car and three figurines. We were living in Virginia Beach at the time, and immediately after Christmas we bought at least one more building and some more people; My cousins got me a taxicab...

 

After 22 years of service (Actually 21, since we didn't set it up one year; I believe it was 2009, due to our dog Molly's failing health), my beloved German brewery has held up quite well, but I just discovered that a chunk of porcelain wreath is missing...

 

Beekman House was in the second batch of buildings my parents bought, in December 1999 right after Christmas; Again, we were living in Virginia Beach at the time and I believe they bought the second batch of pieces at a place that was going out of business and having a sale...

 

The police station was also among the buildings are parents purchased at that going out of business sale at the place in Virginia Beach right after Christmas in 1999...

 

In the summer 2000, our fledgling Christmas village endured a move across the country from Virginia Beach to Oak Harbor, Washington. My dad was in the Navy and had been transferred to NAS Whidbey Island; In the summer 2002, our growing collection endured yet another move back across the country to Virginia (NoVa/DC Metro this time), and in the summer of 2005 we moved out of state for the final time. We moved back to Pennsylvania in July of 2005, having originally left in 1996 when my dad got transferred back to California; For the first two years, my parents rented a 4-bedroom house from one of my dad's Navy buddies.

In early 2007, my dad had officially decided to retire and all three of us decided that we wanted to stay in Pennsylvania for good this time; However, the place we were renting had all sorts of things wrong with it and a big dealbreaker was that fact it had oil heat and no walk-in closet in the master bedroom...

I HATED THAT HOUSE!

Anyway, the shitbox was in Doylestown and my parents bought a brand new place in Furlong; While we were waiting for the new place to be built (My parents put a deposit down in April 2007 and closed on Labor Day Weekend that same year), we lived with my Grandparents in Bethlehem for most of the summer and our stuff went into storage. As part of the many feign benefits of being in the military, the Navy paid for one final move before my dad retired, which included moving the stuff out of the old house, storing it for like two months, and moving it into the new house!

We lived in the Furlong house for almost nine years, but my parents decided they wanted a single-family home again and we moved to our current house in March 2016; My dad had been a civilian for almost a decade and the Navy wasn't paying for this move, so he got the biggest Uhaul truck he could get, and with that Uhaul and my Tacoma, a bunch of family and friends helped us move into this house!

For having endured five moves over the course of 17 years, three of which were out of state and two of which were across the country, these pieces have held up incredibly well in my opinion!

 

Lowry Hill Apartments was the last addition to the collection, a gift from my parents in 2005 along with a car that sort of resembles an early postwar Rolls-Royce...

 

This one is actually a Dickens Village piece, inherited from my grandmother when she had to move into hospice care in the summer of 2014; It looks a little weird, considering that Dickens Village is supposed to be 19th century London, and Christmas in the City is supposed to be Anytown USA in the late 1930s or early 1940s, but it has sentimental value and I made it work!

 

I always thought of the setting as being about 1937-1938, but then I added these two cars to my collection and the year hopped to at least 1940; It could be in 1940 a year before WWII started, in 1941 right after WWII started, or in 1942-1944 when the war was at its height! What does everybody think?

 

I've also got a 1919 Ford Model T and a 1930 Harley in the collection, so a mid-WWII setting is definitely feasible; At a time when people weren't holding onto vehicles for all that long, it would make sense for somebody to be holding onto a motorcycle that was over 10 years old and a car that was over 20 years old due to wartime rationing...