Cardboard Christmas

Hello folks-

My name is Jack Cleveland, and I stumbled across the PapaTed website a few days ago, and knew right away I needed to join this group of collectors. When I was a boy my family had a putz, or garden as we called it, around the Christmas tree. It was always my favorite part of decorating for Christmas. I am 51 now, and have continued that tradition in my own home. Even those years when I have had a small tree due to time constraints, a village scene is set up somewhere in the house.

I never knew there was so much to learn about the cardboard houses until I ran across PapaTed's website. I definitely want more houses now, especially some of those cool looking "cocoanut" houses. Any help ayone can give me for expanding my collection would be greatly appreciated.

I am a 10th grade English teacher in a rural school. My collecting interests include Boys and Girls Series books, 16mm feature films, and pulp magazines. I'm fairly eclectic as you can see!

Looking forward to getting to know folks here-
Jack

Hi Jack,

I’m Lynn it nice to meet you and welcome!! I am not fortunate like you to have original putz house, I make my own, and love every minute of it. Have you made any houses? You are really going to love this forum, there is always someone to help and we love to share pictures of our houses. I hope you had a chance to visit Antoinette Stockenberg’ Christmas site http://www.antoinettestockenberg.com/xmas.htm

I'm Maria, love all things vintage holiday--Christmas etc.--and putz houses especially. I own a few original pieces, have made some of my own, but largely own Karl Fey and Howard Lamey

Howard
http://www.littleglitterouses.com
Fey
http://www.dimestoredwellings.com

Here's my oldest original putz

Thanks for the welcomes folks!

Welcome to the site, Jack. I hope you have as much fun as I have trying new things out. You might start with some of Howard Lamey's patterns, if you want to make houses on your own, which I highly recommend. You can always color and modify and decorate them to suit your own interests. (I'm working on a series based on the Little House books, for example.) You'll end up with heirlooms of your own creation, that someone down the line will cherish. The instructions on Papa Ted's site got me started, and I return to them frequently to refresh my understanding of how and why and what.
Good luck to you.