The theme for December is ‘How Do You Celebrate?’ We asked for our members to share a holiday setting that shows how they celebrate whatever it is they celebrate.
These are the challenge entries that were submitted.
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From Laura Reich:
Not a great picture --- but see Santa through the window. On Christmas Eve we always had Santa come to the house by the back door, and hand out our presents -- 3 each -- to us six kids.
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From Carol Vasil:
This is my Christmas house that holds my Christmas tree.
Mrs.Claus is baking and Santa is wrapping presents.
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From Michelle Miller:
This is how I decorate for Christmas with my minis.
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From Patty Johnson:
Here’s my how I celebrate Christmas -- an ornament gift for Christmas to each of my children.
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From Ruth Goodger:
This gift box was made when our Mini Club went to Idaho from Colorado on a road trip.
It took many years before it was actually finished because of the fire that was supposed to be in fireplace. In this inch scale room so many things were scratch built or scavenged. I covered the outside of the faded wrapping paper with winter scenes from a favorite calendar. All our group is older now and dispersed. I’m the only one left still building.
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From Gail Jeffrey:
A decorated tree, gifts being wrapped, hot cocoa with cookies, cards displayed on the fireplace, reading Christmas stories, nativity scenes ... signs of Christmas past and present in a lamp base. A club project from 2008-9.
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From Christiane Starks:
Every November, I empty and thoroughly clean my Beacon Hill to get it ready for Christmas. This year, I built an addition as I was running out of room in the main house! I have boxes of mini Christmas decorations as well as furniture I use at Christmas time and I have so much fun changing everything up for the holidays. I love to set out all of my mini Christmas projects from past years. My son has small "stuffies" that visit in the spacious family room and the staff supplies Christmas goodies on a daily basis.
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From Ynez Fritsch:
These are four separate rooms of Santa's house. The patterns for each room came from different years posted to "Quarter Connection" files. I had to resize one or two years to make the four rooms the same size. Christmas to me is a magical. whimsical time of year and these four tiny rooms seem to bring out these feelings.
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From Carol J. Shea:
We always had Santa come for the kids even when they were older. They were so excited to see what was added after they went to bed. This is sometimes how my hubby and I felt when we were finally finished with all the assembling.
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From Natalie Maguire:
This was a club project. We all had the same building structure and created our own finishing.
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From Bev Fleming:
This is my Hallmark house & shop display, I really love all these holiday houses & shops all decorated for the holidays.
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From Mae Karoli:
This New Year’s Eve scene was our club Christmas gift in 1997. The party committee provided the box, window and curtain, covered table, wall shelf and punch bowl. Every member either made or purchased the same item for the other members. Those items include the mirrored ball, wreath, champagne bottle, stemmed glasses, silverware, cake, bowl of potato chips, centerpiece, basket on the floor, gloves and cane, and more.
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From Julie Stuckmeyer:
I celebrate Christmas and loved how this room (part of a large carousel I got from a brick and mortar store that was closing) turned out with Santa and Mrs. Claus hanging out before the big night.
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From Lynne:
This is one of my favorite Christmas room boxes. Most of the items were found on a trip to Germany. The festive cake and mouse buns are by Jasmin Schwartz. The dog was made by Bridget McCarty to look like a beloved pet who happened to love Christmas.
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From Janie Kocman (member of Tri-M Memphis):
The living room, Christmas Eve
Also from Janie Kocman:
Santa's shop ... "SANTA'S GALORE STORE"
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From Estella Pekarske:
I love celebrating Christmas and decorating from top to bottom. I have a lot of Hallmark collections in my home, so I had to incorporate them in my mini project, using the Elf with cookie cutter on his foot on my table and using miniature Hallmark ornaments throughout the house -- even the stove, refrigerator, etc. are Hallmark ornaments.
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From Jean Ellsworth:
My 1:12 scale Christmas room. Overly crowded but it contains all my favorite Christmas minis.
I especially love our dog opening his package.
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From Preble in GA:
My favorite Christmas miniature right now is the one I finished earlier this year. We've had an Advent calendar made of cloth for years but I decided to make something with minis as well. It's a combination of little ornaments and tiny houses that light up.
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From Mary Johnson:
Christmas!
Each year putting up ornaments is a journey through my life. Each ornament brings to mind places, people and joys of my life. This 1" scale "Christmas Morning" scene was made in a popcorn tin as a club project.
Presents loaded under the tree, decorations & stocking hung throughout the living room and my brothers and sisters blissfully ignorant of the mess we made as we played with our new treasures in the living room. Savory and spicy smells wafting from the kitchen where Mom spent most of her Christmas day! (It always seemed so magical in my memories.) Ultimately, our Christmas was the celebration of the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ, represented on the fireplace mantle.
Our Club President, had openings cut in each tin and plastic sheeting covers the opening of mine, to cut down on dust.) I've made other more elaborate 1" and 1/4" Christmas scenes in workshops and from "memory" but I still favor this "memory".
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From Sue Ostheimer:
All the food in this scene was made by me in a 2-day workshop in 2007 with Philippa Todd who came from England and stayed with a club member to teach our group this (mostly) Fimo clay Christmas Dinner.
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From Fay Zerbolio:
I created this Christmas dining room because I won the dinnerware at an auction at a NAME function. I made the tree from a kit from GJ's. (This is the 2nd of 4 that I've made--I love their kits.) I made the food and the stitching pieces that are in the house. I also made the snowglobe on the fireplace. Our animals are represented in this Christmas dining room.
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From Dori Allard:
This is one of my Christmas room boxes -- a romantic dinner for two in front of the fire!
Happy Holiday's
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From Jackie Williams:
Two Little trees that come out for decorating my home during the Christmas Holidays.
One is made of bead tree limbs I built from a kit some years ago and I love seeing it out along with the second tree that has tiny Hallmark ornaments I have been collecting since the 1980s.
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From :Jackie Browder
I have started a tradition of making at least one small room box or dollhouse for Christmas. Each year, all the little scenes will be pulled out of storage to be displayed. Somewhere in each box is the year date. For this year's box, the date is the house number. Most of the boxes are filled with swap items, so they remind me of my friends and make me smile!
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From Lesia Lennex:
Of all the mini holiday photos, I chose this one to send because my extended family loved it. This scene, made with Petite Princess kitchen furniture, artist pieces, purchased minis, lots of roundtables, mega roundtables, and other kits, and a resin figure is beloved by my cousins. They tell me the figure reminds them of our Mamaw. She loved Thanksgiving and having everyone in the house for several days. That was close to 40 people most years! The wonderful memories we all have of those Thanksgivings!
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From Debby Albert:
This is my centerpiece on my table every year at Christmas. It was a State Day in South Carolina. I don’t remember the year. I do remember that Eleanor Acree made everyone a Santa.
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From Nikki Higgins:
My mini Christmas display this year.
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From Heather Oppenheimer:
Every year before Chanukah we have Gingerbread Day. Friends and family join us to make cookies, houses, and other structures out of gingerbread. Later, we have another party to bash and eat the constructions and drink hot chocolate. Photos are my husband and me and our parents and grandparents. There is a reproduction of our ketubah and challah cover, as well as other Judaica in the room.
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From Carol Gill:
Photos of our first Christmas together (which almost became our last)
My husband and I were married in September 1962 and were still in that discovery phase when Christmas rolled around less than three months later. One thing I discovered that holiday season was that football is important!! The Army/Navy game was especially important to anyone raised in Philadelphia, PA as we were because the game traditionally had been played at the Stadium in South Philadelphia. In 1962 President John F Kennedy attended the Army/Navy game but I had other plans for that day. We lived in an apartment where live Christmas trees were not permitted so there was no REAL urgency about buying our tinsel tree on that particular day – except that it was on MY schedule for that day. Won’t say an argument ensued when I told my husband he wouldn’t be watching the game because we were going to the hardware store to buy our tinsel tree. Keep in mind this was pre-reruns which meant he wouldn’t be watching the game at all. I also knew nothing about tinsel trees and didn’t realize they only need one ornament on each branch. Had I known that, I would never have bought twelve dozen blue glass balls, twelve boxes of tinsel, and one enormous plastic star for the top of the tree. Practical to a fault, I wanted a tree topper that would “last” and it did. We were still using it thirty years later, long after we had abandoned the tinsel tree. As time passed we accidentally broke a few blue ornaments each year until we had only one remaining. I decided it was time to retire the ornament to a place of honor and created my tribute to our First Christmas Together. Each and every item I made for the project brings back precious memories of those early days together as we learned to live together (not always in perfect harmony). I made the TV as an exact replica of our actual tv with its rabbit ears and a reduced newspaper photo of the game on the screen. The other graphics around the room were also found in newspapers. No Internet or personal computers in 1962 (at least not in our house) but I am proud of my efforts with the limited materials available. One final note: We didn’t own a car in 1962 and my grumbling husband had to carry home a large tree box and many boxes of decorations but we survived. Love does conquer all sometimes but lesson learned: don’t make plans when an important football game is scheduled.
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From Cindy Bottasso:
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From Cat Wingler:
I finished the Tree tutorial from Jackie Batcheller and now it’s a permanent part of our Christmas decorations. I loved how easy it was to do and how cute up it turned out.
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From Colleen Walker:
In the Walker house we celebrate Christmas with a tree and lots of decorations. Here is my miniature Tree, a Christmas house and a Holiday wagon with lots of fun things.
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From Paula Sklodowski:
My submission for the December CREATE challenge is a mini, but not the traditional kind. I made this ceramic Christmas village more than 30 years ago. I have no idea what scale it is and my brain has trouble doing that math – but the church is 3” tall including the steeple. I finished and painted all the buildings and there are even stained glass windows in the church. The trees, fence and bridge were added over time. Some years it’s on a box with electric lights under each building. This year it has battery LEDs in a few. I loved working on it all those years ago and it makes me smile every time I look it years later.
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From Lee Weinstein:
Thanks for including Chanukah on the Create site. These are a couple of photos of a Chanukah table I make for gifts!
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From Paula Francis:
The house was a gift from my sister. She found it after an open house. The realtor used it for holding informational material about the home for sale. It was being discarded and she knew that I could never resist a structure that could be used for a miniature display. Santa, Mrs. Claus and Santa’s favorite elf … all busy getting ready for a Christmas Eve delivery.
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I have a number of quarter scale mini scenes I have made over the years. This one is one of my favorites. I used the House Shrine with Doors - Tiny from Alpha Stamps. Added feet to the bottom and then added a floor to the drawer to extend the floor and add a spot for Mr. and Mrs. Claus to be making deliveries.
Also from Kathryn Asbahr:
I started the train scene a couple of years ago and finished it last year. Inside the retired combined car is a workshop for the elves and sleeping quarters. The total scene has some things from the Tim Allen Santa Clause movies. Bernard's office is in the little house. Chet is coming in for another landing. He missed the trees but he still needs to work on his landing.
Also from Kathryn Asbahr:
The Griswold home is made from a Bachmann kit. I drilled all the holes in the roof for the "twinkling" lights. That is Clark out front with the extension cords. Cousin Eddie's RV is parked to the right. Beside that is Clark's tree stand - The Griswold Family Tree Farm. Their motto is: A little full, A little sap, Squirrels optional. I made the sign years before I ever got involved in minis.
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From Betty Turmon:
This is one of my favorite Christmas miniatures. It is quarter scale. I made every piece of furniture, no kits. The fireplace was made from the instructions by Jerry Floor. The China dishes shown in the second photo were all made by Jerry Floor. Jerry was one of the early makers of quarter scale projects and was instrumental in my love of this scale. This room was made in 2000 and I made the sofa and chairs patterns then and still use these patterns today.
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From Billie Ruonavaara:
Here at Mouse Hollow we like to celebrate the holidays with Lots of Friends, Food and Festivity!
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From Barb Antol:
One of my favorite Christmas minis is this Tudor Advent Calendar I created using a kit from Petworth Miniatures. It was a unique project and really fun to build. I decorated each little room with different Christmas wallpaper and trim. Instead of using it as a regular Advent calendar to hold treats, I decided to fill each of the 24 little rooms with special minis (mostly 1” scale) representing all the things I love about the Christmas season. There’s a little room with gingerbread, one with hot cocoa and cookies, one with a plum pudding and a copy of Dickens’ Christmas Carol. Another room contains nutcrackers, while another holds tree trimming minis (tiny boxes of ornaments and tinsel). There are tiny Santas and of course, Rudolph. Another includes a tiny group of angels, some mini Christmas LPs and a book of carols, while another holds a group of tiny toys. Others include a silver bell, sleighs, gift packages, tiny Christmas trees and even a tiny advent calendar. One includes a little sign “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”. It sure is for me! The final two rooms include a tiny nativity scene. There’s even a room with a copy of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and some tiny Tudor goblets of mead, so it really spans the entire season from December 1st to the Feast of the Epiphany. Some of the minis are from my Mom’s Christmas collection, so they bring back very special memories of her and my childhood Christmases. This wonderful little project sits atop our mantle and each day from December 1st through Christmas Eve, I look forward to opening a door!
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From Victoria Scidmore:
Not how I celebrate but how I would like to! I painted an unfinished sleigh and added a deer and doll from Hallmark. Now if I just had snow!
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From Brandi Bacon:
Ok, so we celebrates minis in a big way in our family! I normally do mini classes at school (last year we didn’t get to because of COVID). We have done Volker Arnold ornaments (Pic is of Easter project) but 2 years ago at the Seattle Miniature show my then 10 year old son bought a hundred or so ornaments (with his own money!) from Volker so his classmates and his sister's classmates could do mini projects.
I’ve also done a snow globe project with about 150ish kids or so. One year the classes used miniatures, artist made figures, and all sorts of fun stuff. The next year after running out of figures the kids all sculpted their own figures out of Sculpy!
Kids love Christmas and they love creating and making art. I’ve found that miniatures teach so many different lessons and in such a fun way. But also, and importantly, they become a momento that is unique and easy to display, store, and keep. There are kiddos that are now in high school that made minis with me in grade school and they still talk about how they keep them and cherish them. And some of them have talked me into doing projects with middle schoolers and high schoolers!
I CANNOT WAIT until things are back to normal and I’m teaching more again. But I’m happy that I’ll be able to do mini classes (at least in part) this Christmas and I love sharing Minis at Christmas time!
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From Kat Cashwell:
So this how the elves celebrate after the holidays!
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From Suzie Aguilar:
I love Christmas and miniatures. Thanks to miniatures, I get to celebrate Christmas all year! I have Christmas miniatures everywhere including an entire display cabinet (left photo) of just Christmas projects, one of which is Debbie’s Toy Shop advent that I hope to finish this year! My challenge submission is a photo (right photo) of the very first Christmas vignette I made, probably in the early 1980s for a contest I entered. I made the Christmas tree (from pipe cleaners), the angel (from a copper sheet), many of the ornaments, and the gifts under the tree. The contest rules at a local miniature shop required that it be made in a foam core box we constructed from materials they supplied. I won second place!
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From Helen Sparks:
Many years ago, the Miniature Enthusiasts of Westminster's project was a four room turntable. I decided to make mine Santa’s house. Outside Rudolph is looking in (his nose lights up, or at least it used to.). Mrs. Santa is in the living room with her cookies. The elves are finished in the workshop and enjoying some holiday treats. And Santa is doing a last-minute check of his list in the office. His two file drawers are labeled “Naughty” and “Nice”. This was a lot of fun to make and I display it year-round.
