Why I Oughta...

The folks over at the Home Depot continue their annual tradition of releasing a dated Home Depot building for your Christmas Village. Here's a post from 2011 that shows that year's version .  The date was in a different spot and they had Santa ringing a bell out front. This year's edition comes with a couple of people lining the sidewalk (one with the - of course - orange apron).  They're pricing it really well at $9.98 (same price as 4 years ago!), but it isn't the best quality made building.  Nevertheless, I'm thinking that getting a building for less than 10 bucks is going to make this thing find plenty of homes in villages around the country.  Mantleburg is more of a Menard's kind of town, though.  So, we'll be without Home Depot for a while.

Here's another of the 2015 Lemax Christmas Village buildings at Menards:  Jackson & Son Grocery store.   Like the Snowflake Theater that I posted last week , this one leaves a little bit in terms of finish and design.  It just kinda seems sloppy and the details aren't very fine in terms of how they're presented.  Too bad, but it seems that either Menards OR Lemax has let down their standards a bit.  This Jackson & Son Grocery store won't be finding a home in Mantleburg.  What will the residents do?  Hold out for a Whole Foods?  Who knows!?!?

Here's another building from Lemax that Menard's is carrying as part of their 2015 Christmas Village set.   Unlike the Snowflake Theatre , this building wasn't displayed on the top shelf so I couldn't tell if it suffered from the same quality issues, but based on the photo on the front of the box, it appears that this is a click up - in terms of product - from some of the others this year.  It has a clear window in the front left that shows the cobbler working in it and it has a nice hanging sign that sticks out from the front above on the left side.  That's a nice touch.  This one was on sale for $31.99, so that also explains the quality improvement.   Alas, the kids shoes in Mantleburg are going to have to continue to deteriorate because the Village Board has decided to not approve the application from the Cobbler to open up shop in Mantleburg.  Maybe another year, Mr. Cobbler.  Maybe another year.

 Here's the annual photo of the kids (in this case...The King of the Ball Tossers) in front of the Menard's Christmas Village set up.  I posted last weekend a photo of one of the buildings ( the Snowflake Theater ) and I'll be posting more shortly.  We went to the Melrose Park store (the one that has the shopping cart escalator and piano player!). We were there to see if there were any worthy additions to Mantleburg.  The Village Board has been picky lately as the last annexation to the Village of Mantleburg happened back in 2012 when they brought in a new Tavern .  Will 2015 be the year that the Board loosens up their requirements? Here's a post from 2011 that shows The Bird doing the EXACT SAME THING . Ahh...traditions at their finest, aimrite?!?!

We stopped at Menard's over the weekend and they had their Christmas Village set up that included some newish buildings from Lemax.  This one above - the Snowflake Theater - was on sale.  We didn't buy anything for Mantleburg.  If you look closely at this building, it seems to me that the quality of Lemax buildings has gone down hill a bit this season.  The painting is sloppy and the details are kinda soft.   There were a few other Lemax Christmas Village buildings that I'll post later that were 'better'.  It really is too bad.  This theater *could* have been really great.  In past years, they've had some mechanical, light-up structures like carousels.  They could have done a really neat light-up, animated marquee on a theater like this.  Missed opportunity, it seems.

Longtime readers know my fascination with Christmas Villages.  Hell...I even came up with the name for my own town:   Mantleburg .  But, due to space and a little bit of sanity winning out, I've really slowed down on the acquisition of any sort of new Christmas Village stuff. That was, until I was gifted this Chop Suey Palace from A Christmas Story this am. That lead me down a web rabbit hole where I discovered these:   National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation village stuff . Yeah...they're all there.  Cousin Eddie with the full shitter.  Clark's over-lit house, and even the huge tree on top of the Truckster.  As I've learned in the past, these things roll out in phases, so I'm expecting to see more next year. Maybe Mantleburg will get a new subdivision after all...

The Babe added this guy to the end of her log-rolling car on the ole' Mantleburg line in the basement.  I think we'll let him rid along for a while.

Mantleburg's population grew by 1 today as the recently added tavern enlisted this fine lady to serve frosty brews to the folks who stop by.

This mill looks like it fits in really well with the mountain/resort side of Mantleburg, doesn't it?  Menards slapped their name on it this year, so for everyone else but me, that probably is a turn-off.

I was in Walgreens over the weekend when I spotted these four Christmas Village buildings for sale.  They're priced pretty aggressively, but I'm not sure Mantleburg needs a slum.

With all the tourism that the Carousel is going to bring, one would think that Mantleburg could support a hotel.  We'll just have to see what Mayor Johnson decides.

This year, Lemax came out with another tree lot.   Last year it was Frosty 's.  This year it is Kris' - and it's more of a "tree farm" than lot. I'm thinking that there isn't enough action in Mantleburg to warrant competing tree businesses.  Poor old Frosty would starve, right?

The folks in Mantleburg are set for a Merry Christmas as we've now seen the building permits come across for the Haypenny Tavern.  The economy took a tool on the community last year, but 2012 looks like their will be growth for Mantleburg.

Take a peek at what Menards has this year from Lemax.  Me thinks that Mantleburg is going to come out of the recession with a bunch of new building permits this winter.

Look what we found at Michaels!  They have their LeMax display out already.  I picked up the brochure and will find out what's doin' with these guys this year.  Could there be new growth for Mantleburg?  I sure hope so.  The recession was particuarly tough on the town last year as no new buildings were added and the construction industry was devastated.  Will this year be better?

I took both of my girls to see the Menards Halloween display.  The Babe loved everything but the scary ghosts/witches while The Bird mostly just hung out in her car set. Here's the photo I took of The Babe just one year ago .  Can't believe how much she's grown!

Menards has their Lemax Halloween village back up this year with a few new additions including this Tombstone Quarry with skulls on a conveyor belt.

There's a new addition to the community of Mantleburg - Frosty's Christmas Tree Lot.  With the Menard's Dutch Auction sale on all Christmas stuff going on, I couldn't help myself with getting this piece for 50% off the retail price.  I've had my eye on it all season and it fits in nicely with a few of the other buildings in their new home down in the basement on the ledge.

Worlds are colliding.  Pizza parlors and Christmas Villages.  This one - Gfeller's Pizza Parlor - is at Lowe's and looks like it currently is $34.99 - which isn't terribly cheap.  With the basement project still underway (tapers are there today), Mantleburg hasn't been able to make it's annual appearance yet.  Nat hasn't come right out and said it, but I'm getting from her the desire to push the buildings downstairs.  Once we get the ledge up around the perimeter, Mantleburg will be back in business.

It isn't just Walmart and Lowes getting in on the "home center" Christmas Village building, Home Depot joins the party with their very own orange-tinted Home Depot building. Home Depot's  building is dated (see the 2011) by the front door, has a Santa and is the cheapest of the lot.  It really surprises me that each of the these stores have their own branded buildings - which means that people *must* be buying them, right?