Christmas garden

Christmas garden: A layout-like display set up at Christmas that contains at least a creche and an electric train. A Christmas garden is often simply referred to as a ‘garden’.

Usage: It was a Smith family tradition to set up a Christmas garden in their living room every December.

Source: Jim Williams, in his December 1949 Railroad Model Craftsman article, A Rail Is Born, starts off his story about how he got into model railroading with a rather detailed description of the Christmas gardens of Baltimore, Maryland in the 1920s:

An old German custom, transplanted to Baltimore [1], made a model railroader of me. It happened 22 years ago [2] when Jimmie was only 2 years old. The old Yuletide custom is that of having elaborate “Christmas gardens” around the Christmas tree. For the benefit of those not familiar with the customs, perhaps it would be better at this point to explain just what a “garden” is.

Christmas gardens reproduce in miniature, any scene from an amusement park or farm but the absolute sine qua non of every garden is the Holy Stable and the electric railroad. Many gardens comprise only a circle of track, the Stable and a few cardboard houses - but the train has GOT to be there, let the anachronisms fall where they may. We haven’t lived in Baltimore for 15 years but I certainly hope that Father Time has not trodden such a delightful custom into the mire of disuse.

In the Maryland metropolis, everyone has some kind of Christmas garden; fire and police stations compete with each other for the approval of gaping crowds of youngsters and even greater crowds of oldsters. I remember the time a drunk fell into the garden at the Southern Police Station - but that’s another story except to mention that he really got the business in police court next morning.

But to get back to my muttons; nor is the garden custom confined to large institutions. Neighbors vie with each other in the production of super-detail buildings and scenery and in dreaming up ingenious mechanical effects.[3] During the holidays many sitting rooms and / or dining rooms are completely filled with the Christmas garden for the edification of all youngsters no matter how many snows have found lodgement in their hair. Dime stores are raided for miniature holy and lay figures and wheeled equipment. A regular rite of the Yule season in many families consists of a day or night devoted to a tour of the best gardens and among the super-detailers plagiarism of garden ideas sometimes leads to bitter passages.

To a great degree the yardstick of comparison is the amount of action presented in the garden. Ferris wheels revolve realistically, waterfalls splash merrily over little mill wheels, fountains fount and autos and boats sail majestically along their appointed courses in the grip of hidden magnets and belts. But always there is the ubiquitous electric train.

A Christmas garden in similar to the archaic form of Yard, and is more-or-less identical with Adolph F. Frank’s “Christmas tree yard” -  refer to the entry for Yard.

One will also note the further connection between the modern hobby of model railroading and the older folk activities of building Christmas tree yards, yards, Christmas gardens, and gardens in Mr. William's article.

Notes:

[1] Baltimore, Maryland

[2] Given the story was published in 1949, this would anchor the Christmas garden description in 1927.

[3] Adolph F. Frank describes how to build your own mechanical effects based on his experiences with Christmas gardens.

from The Dictionary of Non-Existent Model Railroad Terms, 2nd ed., 1999.