My mom loved decorating for Christmas. She had a lot of Peanuts decorations and even some vintage stuff going back to before she was born. My dad and I are continuing the tradition.
Here's the top of the TV stand. We usually have some white fluffy thing to go on top of it, but my dad skipped that this year. Things stand up with more stability on the bare TV stand anyway.
There's some other stuff on the floor. Mrs. Santa Claus moves, and her candle lights up. The snoring Santa doesn't snore anymore, unfortunately. And that little bear reads 'Twas the Night Before Christmas!
Another one that moves and has the lighted candle. Mrs Santa Claus in this shot also no longer snores. I think we had those way back when I was in elementary school.
Here's Jessica! This is actually the first time she has appeared in this setup. I was too apprehensive to display her here last year.
By her feet are little Peanuts tree ornaments, but we have them set up on the TV stand instead.
There's actually a hilarious story behind this one. It's an old Hallmark set from the 90s, and it was sold in individual pieces. My mom was only able to find some of the pieces in this set in the local Hallmark stores. This was pre-ebay, so she was playing detective trying to find somebody who could help her complete the set by mail and telephone. At one point she ended up calling Hong Kong! I think it wasn't until January the next year, but she eventually did complete the set.
This train makes sounds, and it will make smoke if you have any of that fake smoke liquid stuff that you can put in it.
The "LEON" thing is kind of a family joke. It stemmed from an episode of Home Improvement where the kids were doing a Christmas play, and each kid held a letter just like the kids in these decorations. Unfortunately, the kids were standing in the wrong way, and they accidentally spelled Leon. Ever since then, I would move these decorations around to spell Leon, and my mom would get upset and change them back. This went back and forth dozens of times each year.
This angel is actually the angel that we put on the top of the tree. Unfortunately, the tree's not ready yet.
That thing to the right, whatever you call it, is a nice year-round decoration, believe it or not. It plays Christmas songs, but you can mute it. It turns around and opens the little doors. Unfortunately, it couldn't support its own weight, and the bottom partially fell out. That causes the doors to malfunction. I haven't figured out a good way to repair it yet.
Another Peanuts decoration. I don't remember a funny story like the other one, though. It's weird that they have tree ornament loops on their heads yet they have a stand to display them on a flat surface, don't you think? It's the same thing with the other Peanuts sets.
My mom loved Snoopy! She had so many Snoopy things for all times of the year that you couldn't have a part of the year where there wasn't a Snoopy on display. Here's a big concentration of a bunch of her Snoopy and Peanuts Christmas decorations.
On the top of the hutch, there are some older decorations. The little angel was my great grandmother's I believe. The Santa warming his butt is from way back, too. I don't remember where the reindeer came from.
The mouse on the left is what we always called "No-No Mouse" because when I was little, my mom wouldn't let me touch it. It has a very unique light bulb that flickers like a flame when lit.
The tree to the right is also a decoration that we had for as long as I can remember. The light bulb inside it finally blew out this year. When my dad put in the replacement that we had kept for years, that one blew out, too. Luckily the local Ace Hardware store still carries such a lightbulb. It is working again.
It's great you can remember your Mom this way.
Zoila
