Santa

In the Batman TV show, the Duo is Slumming episode, Andy Devine appears in character as Santa Claus.  Santie Claus as he pronounces it.

So that makes Santa Claus a Batman character.

I am building a small Santa's Village for my American Cities project.  Often large cities just outside of town in the forest would have an amusement park, or tourist destination with a Santa Claus and sort of secular Christmas theme.

They typically had a few small rides for the kiddies, a petting zoo, restaurant, and shops, lots of shops.  And of course Santa Claus.

This little resin building came from Hobby Lobby, it lights up.  It's actually for Valentines Day, but the gingerbread house motif works for Christmas too.

Shown here with my Dollar General on sale Christmas tree.

Race wants a hydrofoil for Christmas.

This little train is also from Dollar General over the last couple years I got several of them.  It consists of one locomotive, one box car and a small circle of track.  I got a bunch of them so my loco motive could pull a few cars.  The surplus locomotives will be repurposed as stationary steam engines in factories, or in small steamers.

The Wooden Soldiers are also from some dollar store a few years ago, they are Christmas tree decorations.

Santa needs a whole army of toy soldiers because, why not?
 

Christmas Tree and a House

Christmas stuff is pretty cheap in April.

I got this 1/2 off at Dollar General.  It's glass but feels more like resin.

It's a jar.

It matches Race's shirt nicely.

Valentines Day gifts are also cheaper in April too.

I got a little house at Hobby Lobby.

The inside lights up.  I don't usually care about that and often remove and recycle the batteries.

Like the Christmas tree it matches Race Bannons shirt.  I am building a little Santa's Village.
 

Red Car

Decades ago this futuristic car was a model kit.

As a commemoration of that Hot Wheels is making it again as a Hot Wheels instead of a model kit.

It is a very nice two tone red.

I plan on giving it to Santa Claus.

Shown here with a 1/72nd scale figure.

It's a beautiful car.
 

Candy Canes and Painting Sticks

Visited Hobby Lobby the other day and they have Christmas stuff out already.  Of course much of it is for crafters and they need a lot of lead time to do their crafty things.  

I like these little plastic sticks with a brush on the end.  It is a good way to apply glue or paint into little recessed areas.  It also provides a pretty good round dot of paint too.

They can be washed and reused like a regular paint brush but only a few times before all the bristles come off.

I got some new paint brushes.  This set comes in big and small point brushes, this is the big point.

My painting skills are not that great so buying expensive brushes, which I have done, does not help much.

I picked up a pack of candy canes.

Shiny plastic with a loop on the top.

I may use them to string a fence line.

I probably won't use barbed wire, but maybe....
 

Christmas Train Set Up

This works as a set up for a Santa's workshop with the simple circle.

Here is another version of the set up.

So I am leaning towards having two circles.

This version has toy ship, toy soldiers, and teddy bears, surrounding a Christmas tree.

The little train makes a nice border for the display.

Pretty good I think.

The toy soldier is a Christmas tree decoration.

Two fire engines I got from a craft store, make nice toys.

Mini train and sleigh also came from a craft store.

Fire stations are actually die cast!
 

Little Red Train

Peppermint Express is ready.

The sweetest holiday.

The little box may get removed and replaced with gifts.

Then the box will be used for other purposes.

The set comes with four identical pieces of track, in two different colors.

They only go together one way, sadly.

The little wind up locomotive runs very well and really fast.

Actual action shots of this little loco.

By flipping a couple of the track pieces I can make this layout, sort of, they don't really fit together and the track is upside down.

So I may just either ditch these tracks and use something else, or just live with two circles.