Today I finished putting out my "Christmas" Harbour light. While putting them out I started wondering how others display their Christmas HL's.

We have a special tree that has only lighthouse ornaments on it and the bulk of the decorations are the HL ornaments. We also have ornaments that we pick up from lighthouse gift shops, and area stores that we visit. This year we are adding a North Head ornament and an ornament with 5 Florida lighthouse we got at the Ponce Inlet gift shop. We also have a few ornaments that friends have given us that grace our tree. This tree is in the television room and is turned on by a timer so that it is lit when we come home.

In addition I display all the Christmas special editions in my den on top of one of my HL display cases. We only bring these out once a year, and this helps to make them something special.

What do others do during the holidays? Do you do anything special to display Christmas HL's? Do you leave them out all year? I think it would be interesting to hear what others do during this season.

My Christmas HLs also come out for the month of December and January along with the three other HLs that have snow on them. They occupy the first few shelves in my main curio.

My HL Christmas ornaments are displayed along the shelves of my entertainment center. They are only out for the month of December then put back into their boxes. I don't put any of them on my Christmas tree because they would be lost amongst the hndreds of ornaments.

Merry Christmas!

Bob

This is a picture of a NEW Christmas tree that we put up this year. It has the HL ornaments that I have displayed on it.



Bert

My Christmas pieces are out all year in a special curio that only has the Christmas pieces and Society pieces displayed in it so I get to enjoy all their beauty the entire year. I also have a special small curio cabinet that displays only the Christmas ornament and again they are out all year. I have more room for curio cabinets then I do for storage what with Amy's clothes in all the closets and being in Florida there is no basement and the attic is way too hot to store extra lighthouses.

Rich

I take out all of my Christmas ornaments out of their mini-curio and display them on a 4' tree. The bigger Christmas pieces are out all year.

This year the Christmas pieces plus Presque Isle, Pa are in the hutch on the bottom (wooden) shelf. The top shelf which is glass has some of I.O's ship models, the ones with sails. In front of the ships are a couple spyglass sets. As the top of this hutch is lighted it looks pretty nice. The rest of the year these pieces are packed away. The ornaments that I have are in small curio along with a few little lights and thumbnails. In the cool weather this little curio is in an indoor porch. In warmer weather it moves to an unheated entry porch.

My other piece with snow (Sherwood Point) stays in one of the main curios year round as it's a special piece, chosen by a special person!

I keep the Christmas lights out all year. I also have a collection of "snowbabies" penguins, and each penguin is staring in awe at the lighthouses. Some of the penguins look up at the tower, but one is staring down a little snowman!

A couple years ago, my husband tripped and fell down the back staircase and knocked a "foot" (actually two-feet-size) size hole in the wall, happened to be centered between two studs (and in the very middle of the wall!). Rather than repair the wall and try to re-wallpaper it, he enlarged the hole and turned it into a built-in mini curio-cabinet. He made a glass back and lucite shelves and mounted a strip light on the top. We now use that to display Christmas ornaments year-round. He wasn't hurt after the first fall, but he MIGHT be if he falls again!

My Christmas HL's all come out in December and go back in January. I was able to get all of my Christmas pieces, including ornaments, signed while Bill was at the Artisan a few weeks ago.

I do keep my Michigan City piece out all year since I have visited that one but the rest are special for Christmas. They occupy the middle shelf of my HL curio. Just under my wifes Boyds Bear Nativity set. (She gets that shelf for one month then it goes back to California HL's )

Putting back the HLs that I display the rest of the year is a good time to dust and clean everything in the curio. I am not brave enought to hang my orniments on a tree yet so they go in the curio too.

Dale

This works for now because I only have 2 Christmas issues. We have one shelf in the hall under a painting that looks a little like Split Rock that holds 2 HL and some shells. During December and January I switch these 2 for the Christmas ones.
Will have to figure out something else when I get more Christmas issues.

Wow, I never thought of a curio between the studs in a house. As I look around there are a lot of studs that could become curios. Since I can run wires from the ceiling they could be wired to a switch that turns on and offers indirect lighting. A little veneer over the studs, a little stain, and some good lights and you can have a room of HLs surrounding you.

The only problems are overcoming the width needed for many pieces, insulation on outside walls, and then there is the problem of furniture. A swivel chair in the middle of the room may be all the you need, or have room for. This will take a little more thought.

My Christmas pieces are on display 12 months a year.

The remainder of my collection might soon be making the "permanent" trip to the closet or marketplace to make room for my other growing collections.