Christmas Panes

Holly Stevenson from Cheyenne Hills Church in Cheyenne, WY brings us this great Christmas look.

From Holly: We wanted to feel like you were looking into our home. On one side of the stage, you are looking into an entryway with a giant tree, the other side of the stage looking into the family room.

We created two large window frames out of 8’ 2×4 pieces (left over from other sets) The outside dimensions of the widow were roughly 4’X8’. To create more of a widow look we broke the frame up into roughly 2’ widow sections and painted it all white. We strung outside tinsel along the tops. We created dormers above the windows as you would see on the outside of a house. They were 8’ wide and the top of the triangle was roughly 3 ft from the base. We used 2×4 but this time on their edge to create depth back to the particle board. We painted it white and added outdoor icicle lights and a lighted wreath with a red bow (to match the tinsel on the widow).

One side of the stage is a 14’ Christmas tree with silver, gold, and red ornaments. This tree runs $780 on Amazon. We already owned the ornaments and red tree skirts.

On the other side of the stage we created a living room. We borrowed a chair from our lobby, we purchased a 9’ skinny Christmas tree from Amazon for $200. Then we created a fireplace. I do not have details on how we made this as my guys invited it as they went. Basically, it is 5’tall, 6’wide, and a foot deep. We walked through the lumber store and picked up trim to create a fancier look and used thin plywood for the sides, front, and tops. We painted the fireplace grey and the trim white so that it popped and would pick up light from the lighting team. We placed a TV inside (not being used elsewhere in the building), set back to look more realistic we plugged in a thumb drive with a “fire” that we turned on during services. We added decorations on top including a nativity. We hung a large wreath above the fireplace using the same red ribbon as the outdoor wreaths, added stockings, some strings of fake holly, a blanket on the chair, and ta-da! We did recreate the same living room in our lobby for selfies with a donated TV.

To complete the look, we added several 2’X4’ widows along the floor. We used painting plastic stretched and stapled to create a “window pane” and added the same outdoor tinsel to some o the props and lights to others. Then we took candle lights or bar lights and placed them on the backside. There are small 1X4s that make legs on the back and handheld weights (10 or 15lb) sitting on the boards to help keep them from falling over (see photo of set piece that doesn’t match, it was the only photo I could find showing the back). We already had this basic piece from another set, just added the set dressings and lights.

I spent around $2000 between the wood for the fireplaces, a few additional decorations, and the trees. The rest was repurposed from previous sets and decorations that we store each year.

You can contact me through our church website for more information.