Another Way to Get Around It....

This morning I realized that it is just a bit over a month until Christmas is here....Again....As I am still not in the mood for the half inch house, I needed another excuse....

I wouldn't want to be a bad influence on Claudia by encouraging her to start another house before she finishes her first house, so maybe I should put it away for a while....

Last year, about this time, I started thinking about doing a Christmas living room with Santa inside. Somehow, that just didn't thrill me. It has been done so many times.

I got out the box of Christmas Minis, and as I passed through the house, I spotted the gazebo that I did a few years ago. It is now pretty boring and stale.

As Tessie dug through the box, I remembered that, when I was little, it was a tradition to go somewhere to sit on Santa's lap and tell him our Christmas wishes. There are still stories of the first time my parents dragged me into Sears to sit on Santa's lap and I screamed bloody murder because they wanted me to sit on the lap of that strange, scary guy with the white beard. I never did live that down. I still got presents, so I soon figured out that Santa was a myth.

I think that Tessie has had that figured out for a long time. She still sat on his lap in the Christmas box and asked for a long list of gifts. He finally pushed her off of his lap and stood up so that she couldn't ask for more.

I seem to remember that one year the "real" Santa was set up in a gazebo of sorts and it was more fun than just Santa sitting in a big chair in front of a fake backdrop. Sooooo.....I put two and two together.

With the help of Tessie, Zar and Santa, we whipped it into shape in no time.

Here's the old version.

Basically, I painted over the lavender flowers that were on the trim. I changed out the wicker for an easy chair and footstool for Santa. Oh, and a rug in Christmas colors was installed.
This is the new version.

I used the sparkly chenille stems for wrapping the posts. I installed a few bottle brush trees. After all, this is Arizona and we don't do real pines as much as other parts of the country. You are just lucky that Tessie didn't plant prickly pears and saguaros around the outside.

See the slight sprinkling of snow on the ground? I raided the pantry and used some Kosher Salt. After Christmas, I will just dust it off. Critters and bugs don't like salt, so I am not worried. Not that I have critters and bugs. Just a statement of fact that it won't attract them....

Santa is now ready and open for lap-sitting. Of course we all know which person is going to be first in line. I am not sure how she managed it, but she already has a package in hand.

I will probably go back and do something with the bases on the bottle brush trees in the front. More railroad greenery, coming right up.

See you tomorrow.