First Full Day Dedicated to 2011 Copeland Christmas Display

I haven't been to storage in a while, so I rode over with Joey and John to get some work done. I have to say, I was floored. It looks like someone robbed a Christmas store in the middle of night and had to shove the hot santas somewhere fast.

Tomorrow, I am headed back to storage with 4 new Harbor Freight shelving units and 3 paid helpers.

All the non-christmas stuff will get put in one corner. The loose clunky Christmas items will go on shelves. Everything else is going in a rubbermaid bin or the dumpster. What am I going to do with those 500 CDS, 300 VHS tapes, and 500 records? The inflatable boat we'll never use is going to a new home. So is everything else we NEVER USE but pay to store.

...We will create rows that a person can fit through.....
...the boxes will be labelled with legible handwriting...
...it won't be perfect, but it's be better...
...I'll take a deep breath and *deal*



On the good side of things, I put up the "noel scene" above the kitchen cabinets today. I usually call it the gold angel scene. It wasn't my first choice of scenes to build for the year, but these were the bins closest to the front of the storage unit. It was a rather easy decision.

Other good news is that the scene went up in about 1-2 hours. I switched things up a bit this year and added the gold glitter candles to the fridge. I don't know that I love it, but it works. The little Annalee angels hanging from the ceiling are so cute.



I also rewired the 18" lighted palm tree with white LEDS. It looks good. My flamingos are on the way from California tomorrow I hope to find the tropical bins in storage so I can begin working on the 2011 "tropical scene."

Copeland Christmas on Facebook

I wonder if I can get more fans on our Copeland Christmas facebook page than on my personal page.....

http://www.facebook.com/CopelandChristmas

We put up the first 2011 display item

This is so exciting! We are doing a snowman scene in the dining room.



Here's what I jotted down in my notes the other day...

We could do a snowmen scene, and we could even use one of the 6 ft resin pieces (like we did in the '09 display-see below). Then, the tree could be all red/white/black with carrot nose ornaments. I have a new snowman hat tree topper from January Pier One sales. Photo below. I could make all the snowmen doing something...like shoveling snow. I could use blocks of styrofoam and lots of fake snow. I could get some cute garden shoves and rest them against the wall. Maybe I can find some blocks of ice. A few snowmen can be off to the side getting into a snowball fight. Maybe some other snowmen could be making snowglobes. Or perhaps I could use some Annalee elves to be making the snowglobes. The snowflakes have to hang from the cieling again...just like 2 years ago. Blue mini lights can illuminated through snowblankets to add some depth. A big red/white striped scarf can keep the tree warm...and big stick arms can make the tree almost look like it's alive. Somewhere I'll put a homemade looking wooden sign that says "snowmen at work" or something clever. My new led dripping icicles will have to go somehwere...maybe they'll hang from the curtain rod. This makes me hope I can find the snowmen early on...now I have two scenes that I need to dig out of the storage.

Now I'm thinking all the snowmen will be decorating the large tree. Some will even be repelling from helecopters so they can add the tree topper. Others will be choosing ornaments from boxes and yet others will be helping pass along ornaments in an assebly line fashion. I think there needs to be lots of snow all over.

The Themed Trees at Copeland Christmas 2010

Two exciting new themed trees for this year, plus one old standby...We have a woodland gnome tree, the large Annalee tree, and the pink Disney Princess tree.

The Annalee Tree:
A few weeks ago, I began stalking the macys holiday section in hopes of catching a glimpse of this season's exclusive Macys Annalees.

Beginning of 2011 Copeland Christmas Display

Last night I got a styrofoam 4x8 (2") from Lowes along with a package of 1" smaller boards. I found some kind of cool egg carton shaped thing that I'm super excited to use. It's going to be a village retaining pond with elevated utility poles. Sounds boring, but it'll be really neat and I've never seen it done before.

Last week, John brought over the first batch of items from storage. If we can find the other snowman stuff, I think that'll be the first scene we do this year. This is so exciting!

The second step toward the 2011 display

Today, I planned out a few of the 2011 indoor scenes. I think John will help me dig some specific items out of storage.

The kitchen will be the same as always..."gold/angels"
The dining room will be "snowmen"
The living room pantry will be "tropical"

From storage, I'd like the following items.

tropical tree and ornaments,
all the snowmen stuff,
the 2 sets of pre-lit pine trees,
the moon,
the dripping icicle lights,
some white minis,
some blue minis,
some prelit garland,
the new 9ft tree,
the new black top hat tree topper,
all the red/silver striped Christmas ball ornaments,
the box of hanging snowflakes.

The Dining Room Scene 2011

I have a couple of ideas for the dining room scene this year. Here's how it looks today (Sep 10, 2011).


We got a new pre-lit slim Christmas tree in January that needs to go right near the hallway (that's the only place it'll fit). So, the tree theme should coincide with the scene theme.

We could do the snowmen here...but I don't have enough snowmen ornaments to fill a 9 ft tree.
We could do the candy/gingerbread here....but ditto for the 9ft tree.
We could do the Antarctica scene again and decorate the tree in blue/white/silver.
We could do a train set and decorate the tree with ???.
We could do a village but how would the tree be decorated?

Going back to the whole snowman idea for a minute...

We could do a snowmen scene, and we could even use one of the 6 ft resin pieces (like we did in the '09 display-see below). Then, the tree could be all red/white/black with carrot nose ornaments. I have a new snowman hat tree topper from January Pier One sales. Photo below. I could make all the snowmen doing something...like shoveling snow. I could use blocks of styrofoam and lots of fake snow. I could get some cute garden shoves and rest them against the wall. Maybe I can find some blocks of ice. A few snowmen can be off to the side getting into a snowball fight. Maybe some other snowmen could be making snowglobes. Or perhaps I could use some Annalee elves to be making the snowglobes. The snowflakes have to hang from the cieling again...just like 2 years ago. Blue mini lights can illuminated through snowblankets to add some depth. A big red/white striped scarf can keep the tree warm...and big stick arms can make the tree almost look like it's alive. Somewhere I'll put a homemade looking wooden sign that says "snowmen at work" or something clever. My new led dripping icicles will have to go somehwere...maybe they'll hang from the curtain rod. This makes me hope I can find the snowmen early on...now I have two scenes that I need to dig out of the storage.

From Copeland Christmas Blog

From Copeland Christmas Blog

The 2011 Living Room Pantry Display

I've been thinking about 2011 inside scenes. This year, the brink pantry wall that faces into the living room is going to have a tropical theme. I am thinking flamingos, palm trees, glass ornaments, drift wood, sand, beach grass, star fish, etc.

Here's a photo from today (Sep 10, 2011) of how the area looks. I will obviously remove that big antique ship horn.


Here's some flamingo garland I picked up at Walmart a few months ago on clearance. I think it was left over from their summer tiki aisle.


Close up of the flamingo garland


The plan is to tie in the existing Dan Mackin print with the 2011 scene. I'd like to use lighted garland around the frame just like I always do. However, instead of bows and berries, I'll decorate the garland with all my tropical glass ornaments. See below for how this area has been decorated in the past.


Here's the scene when snowmen were up top and a white glitter village was down below.


This year, we did a gingerbread scene up top and snowmen down below.


This year, we did motionettes up top and a village down below.


This is teh 2006 display, when we did a hodge-podge of characters up top and a village down below.


Here's the tropical village scene up top and snowmen down below.

6 Years of Christm-fying the TV Room

I noticed I usually do a Christmas village scene under the TV. Not sure what I'll do this year since I have a teeny tiny new TV piece. I think it's time to bring back the two toy soldiers. Perhaps I could do a solder and nutcracker scene? Nah... they are usually boring. Perhaps the two snowmen could flank either side and all the Annalee penguins could go on the table. I like that idea!



Here are the snowmen and the Annalees

Gnome Christmas Tree

The 2010 Gnome Christmas Tree here at Copeland Christmas was so cute. I think for 2011, I'll switch it back to a green tree. I really think white trees have a place in every Christmas house, but to me, white is just more elegant and really demands white lights and a metallic color scheme. I've seen some gorgeous white trees with aqua colors too.

Gnome Christmas Tree from Copeland Christmas 2010

Here are a few other themed Christmas trees from the 2010 season. We did two gold trees with silver glass ornaments and white/gold Annalee angels. I really love the new LED ribbon that has become popular.



Here's another white tree with gold glass ornaments and gold accents. White and gold are so classy.