A late start and a nagging cold meant I went low effort on my village, but we still ended up with:
3 trees
7 loops of track
2 trolley lines
and
2 sore knees
Merry Christmas, y’all!
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Very cool! 
Got a little sidetracked on making a video but if I’m lucky I’ll get it done before Christmas Day 
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Wow!
I made my own Christmas Train using decor I found online and put them on Lionel 4 wheel cars to match the little 0-4-0 Christmas engine that I bought. The flat cars were bobber cabooses that had some damage. It is a cute little train! Picture taken on my layout where this level is always Christmas time.
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Since it’s just Lady Firestorm and I neither one of us felt like getting a full size Christmas tree this year SO we put the old reliable fiber-optic “Robo-Tree” to work on the Christmas train layout.
With the lights on:
With the lights off:
Later on when Lady F’s arisen and I can make noise I’ll shoot a vid.
OK, here’s the vid:
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Let me know please if you can’t see this!
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Or this one
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I saw it all right! And it’s brilliant!
The layout, the trains, the buildings, the tree, everything! And with Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” played by the Boston Pops (I think it’s them) how can you beat it? 
Thanks so much for posting it Becky! 
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That one shows up too!
And if we don’t “speak” again have a VERY Merry Christmas!
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Arthur Fiedler and the Cincinnati Pops actually. The definitive recording in my opinion. Merry Christmas folks!
Ah, definitely an Arthur Fiedler arrangement! He took it to Boston with him, obviously!
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Finally had time to snap a few shots.
First, on Christmas Day, the annual run of my first Lionel, which I got on Christmas Day, '72, (this shot was also posted on the MPC thread):
Next, a pair of shots of my first Marx, received on the Second Day of Christmas, '65 (I was about 1 1/2 years old) out for its annual 12/26 run:
And, finally, some shots of my wife’s On30 Christmas train at Marmaros in its Christmas iteration. first, the BLI C-16 2-8-0:
Next, the tank car decked out in candy striping:
Next, the high-side gon (which needs lettering) carrying a lit Nativity:
And, holding up the rear end, is a combine full of Christmas travelers and decorated with flashing lights (at the moment, the red are lit; the green will light up soon):
That’s it for the big layout. I will try to get some pics of my son’s L Gauge set-up under the tree in the living room.
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I made this Present Car in 1994 long before Lionel made the Present Dump Car in 2006. My wife wrapped little Milk Duds boxes for the presents. It has held up well through the years.
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Twelfthnight: Jan 5th, 1944.
A stark contrast as a Troop Main Train heads north on the White River Division from Camp Nathaniel Lyon en route to a port on a US coast (destination Top Secret). In the capable hands of Frisco Ten-Wheeler #719, the train rolls a small artillery outfit and a pair of tanks–one in early stages of testing–toward their destination. The very sad fact is that, no matter which coast this outfit is heading toward, some of the troops aboard are wrapping up the celebration of their last Christmas. In their minds’ eyes, they peer out the windows of the passenger car and see the stable in Bethlehem where the Prince of Peace lies swaddled and cradled rather than the farm outside Notch, MO.
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It wasn’t for nothing that one of my favorite historians, Edward Jablonski, called them “The bittersweet years of war.” Jablonski knew whereof he spoke, he wasn’t a starry-eyed kid when he wrote those words in the 1970s but a WW2 combat veteran himself.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” A genius line from Charles Dickens that says so much.
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To take a siding for a moment, I’ve always found the stories like buglers playing Silent Night in the trenches, playing games with the “enemy” during winter encampments or just simply observing a cease fire for Christmas to be a profound example of how humanity can still come together, even for one brief moment, during the worst of times.
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