If you like to collect Christmas decorations, you may be interested in this vintage camper music box (http://goo.gl/rKLvOR) that features lights, Christmas music, and a moving train inside. It’s a fun way to celebrate the Christmas spirit and RV travel all together.
It slices! It dices! Actually, it doesn’t slice and dice, but it does the next best thing: it lights and plays music, and the train runs around inside. (Click the pic for more info.)
In college I dated a girl whose mother collected ceramic “Christmas village” decorations. Perhaps you know the decorations I am talking about? Individual items cost somewhere between $10 and $100,000. They are usually hand painted ceramics.
On a white fabric blanket of pseudo snow, my girlfriend’s mother created an old fashioned village winter scene. It consisted of ceramic buildings (with lights), vehicles, and an assortment of villagers engaging in various winter activities like caroling and shoveling snow. To top it all off, there was a plucky model train running through the village.
In the beginning, my girlfriend’s mother’s Christmas village was charming. She set up a few buildings, plugged in some lights, and called it a day. It occupied a side table in the corner of the living room. But over time, what began as a modest little hobby turned into an obsession…
Every year, at the mother’s direction, the Christmas village grew more complex and elaborate. She added more buildings, and more people. Soon there were farm animals and work vehicles and roadways and trees. More, more, more!
This was not a planned community. It was a shrine to urban sprawl.
Eventually the once humble Christmas village resembled Los Angeles during rush hour. The Christmas village became a vast metropolis, expanding from one corner of the living room to engulf an entire wing of the family’s house.
As the mother’s attention turned to new development, the original downtown area was neglected – marred by graffiti, stray dogs, and drifting vagrants. Every afternoon, a dense blanket of smog drifted across the household. It no longer felt safe.
The last time I saw that family’s Christmas village, the mother was promising to revitalize downtown. She was trying to raise money for a light rail system to connect the suburbs (located in the foyer and kitchen) to the old town area. She pledged to build a domed stadium and a park to bring people back.
Sadly, I don’t know if the lady ever finished her domed stadium. After a dispute over zoning, I broke up with the girl.
And while I personally don’t collect Christmas village items, I can appreciate the utility of owning this little Airstream music box. Not only do you get an impressive vintage RV camper, but inside the camper you get a complete village scene, including train.
BOOM! One item and you’re done. That’s my kind of Christmas decorating.