The farmhouse docents received an email the other day asking for their help in taking down the holiday decorations at the historic farmhouse – Christmas is Over. Although the docents enjoy decorating the farmhouse for Christmas, we also enjoy getting together, taking things down and packing up things for next year.
Well, we are not able to have a real pine tree in or food items in the farmhouse, since we are a mini museum. However, that doesn’t stop us in putting together a very attractive holiday display. Our secret is to think like the 1930’s farmwife. It was a simple time back then. It’s the Great Depression era and the farmwife kept things basic–from the tree, decorations, gifts and the holiday meal.
Faux Food, Re-Evaluating and Revising – Christmas is Over
This year, I learned that sometimes the faux food items need be re-evaluated and revised.
We have two whole plastic cabinets dedicated to the storage of our faux food items plus various sized cardboard boxes. Upon pulling open one of the cookie storage shelves, I noted that some of the cookies had crumbled and broken apart. One of my early efforts for faux cookies used a certain type of modeling clay. Unfortunately, after a couple of years, this product eventually crumbled apart. Today, I removed these faux sugar cookie “crumbs”, dusted out the storage tray, and discarded the broken cookies. There is no way to stop them from falling apart. This is a learning to make faux food lesson for me since there is little information on the subject.
Since then, we have experimented using different products to make faux food. Not only does the food need to look real, it needs to be very light weight to display on antique plates, and should last several years or longer. Some products tested better for our needs and held up better. For instance, the first faux peanut butter cookies I made still looks pristine and yummy even though they are years old.
Caring for Faux Food Items
Another factor is our historic coordinator ropes everything off so visitors can not touch the antiques or faux food items. Believe me, our items look so real, children have tried to bite into our cookies. I love that the faux food items I create are so realistic. But the items I create are lovely taken care of at the historic farmhouse.
Once, I was asked to make some faux food items for another small museum which I graciously made for no charge. The items turned out great. However, this person allowed visitors to touch the items. Soon the bread, which takes hours and hours to make, had been torn apart from a visitor. I’m sure the visitor never realized the time and attention to detail every faux food item takes. I was sad to hear this.
New Faux Food Items
When the docents meet, this is also a great time to brainstorm about any new faux food items or other items we would like to have.
I’m thinking a bunch of old fashion taffy would be a great thing faux food to make. Years ago, people would get together for taffy pulls. Plus we will need a pair of old “buttered” scissors to cut the taffy into chunks. I’m going to check to see if the historic farmhouse owns an old pair of old sewing scissors that would work with the display. I know what taffy looks like, so this will be an easy item to produce.
The only issue I see is making the faux taffy large enough. I notice over the years that the clay I use, shrinks slight. So, things need to be slightly oversized at the beginning to allow for this shrinkage.
Our newest faux food item is three popcorn balls. I’m thinking of making some pop corn kernels to put into our old black skillet so we can pretend the farmwife is actually popping the pop corn.
I love it when we get the look “the farmwife just stepped away from the kitchen for a minute”.
Putting Away the Tree – Christmas is Over
We also take down all the holiday decorations and the tree. One docent worked on taking down the small artificial pine tree and boxing up all the ornaments, lights, etc.
We do have a few vintage bulbs but they are expensive to buy. However, we have some new “made to look old” bulbs we also use. Everything is neatly packed away in plastic bins until next year.
Also, to go in the bins are vintage holiday cards, stockings, faux candy canes, and some battery lite candles. No, of course, we do not burn real candles in the historic farmhouse.
Ending Notes for Christmas is Over Blog
We finished up early, so we decided to go out to lunch and enjoy each other’ company for a few more minutes.
Since the historic farmhouse is closed for the season, we generally do not see the other docents too much until mid March when it reopens. We actually lost a couple of docents this year but that is the way of volunteering–people come and people go.
So until next December rolls around again, we will have to wait for the almost magical moment that the Christmas holiday happens again in the historic farmhouse.
Note: Each year, the historic farmhouse is decorated/undecorated by the farm staff and docents, not Santa’s elves.
For Your Information: None of photographs used in today’s blog were taken at the historic farmhouse.