Folks, there is nothing that can catapult #TheTravelingMac into the #HolidaySpirit more than a #ChristmasLightingCompetition! It’s the perfect scenario! If we win, we have all of our #decorations paid for and if we don’t, I would have decorated in the first place anyway… So, it’s a win, win!

And you better bet your dollar I was shopping right away for decorations; as I formulated the best possible Christmas display in my tiny egg noggin… I wanted to create everything myself with the help of lights, some wrapping paper and #tinsel only…

Tracey and I gave ourselves a small budget of around $100… We went a little over but you have to remember, I can use this stuff for years to come… So, it’s kind of an investment also… lol…

And this little #elf even found a use for the skeleton he bought for Halloween… How is a bony skeleton going to add to a #festive #Christmas display… Oh, I wonder…

My favorite moment, when it came to creating this ever so humble #Merry display full of magical lights and presents, was when a customer came to my bar and said he could see this bright Christmas Tree changing colors as he approached #StovepipeWellsVillage…. He said he could see it all the way from the #SandDunes, which is like two miles away!

You couldn’t give me a better Christmas present! The fact that #TheMillenniumFalcon is the first thing people see in this dark, vast #desert as they approach #Stovepipe gives me chills down my spine… No cash reward could ever supplement such a gratifying feeling… The Millennium Falcon is now apart of #DeathValley history, if anyone remembers it or not…

Because that’s what Christmas is about folks… Just spreading this great #HolidayCheer without any financial game interfering… It’s a time when we are forced to recognize each other and be kind to each other in this ever volatile world…

Hell, I would come back every year and put this display up just for the #Holidays, if I knew it gave many such gratification…

Well, here she is above, folks… I bought these big bulbed string lights that changed from red to green gradually… That’s the setting I put them on at least…

I just strapped a one by one, that was about two feet long, along my stove exhaust pipe on the roof of #TheFalcon…. Then I intertwined three strings of lights with #garland and secured them to the ground with boulders, to create a triangle, tree effect…

Then I took small Christmas tree lights and strung them around the big lights, to decorate my make shift tree…

Above, I put together four pictures to show you how the light colors on the tree change gradually from green to red…

And what is Christmas without #snow? I bought white, fluffy tree skirts that are made to look like snow… I tied them all together and weighed them down with presents… The presents are just boxes I took from work and then filled with rocks to weigh them down… Tracey and I had to do a lot of wrapping but the reward was worth the effort… For what is a Christmas Tree without presents under it?

If you look behind my make shift tree, you will see I painted a Christmas tree on The Millennium Falcon with body paint… I painted the picture so when you are approaching the tree it appears to have depth from afar… Instead of staring at a white background, you see some green and christmas tree bulbs as you approach, to give it that extra 3-D effect…

I also bought this great little star to put on top of my tree…

It couldn’t have been a better fit… It’s amazing how things come together when you let the #ChristmasSpirit guide you…

And where are those skeleton legs, you ask? Well folks, I used them as #Santa’s legs… I took some old, black boots,  a couple of christmas stockings and put them on the skeleton legs… They were perfect for this! They couldn’t have been more perfect!

The chimney is just a box wrapped with red construction paper where I drew the lines with a black magic maker to give the illusion of bricks… I strapped some lights around the chimney to draw attention to Santa and put blue led lights at its base to give the illusion of snow… The Chimney is weighed down by rocks to ensure it doesn’t blow off…

The wind was one of the biggest challenges out here when it came to the Halloween display, so I made sure to weigh everything down so it wouldn’t blow away when the inevitable sand storm came… And I also made the tree easy to take down and put up, so I could avoid any horrible storms with-in minutes… And I had to take it down a couple of times…

I couldn’t resist buying this little #snowman… He was on sale for just dollars… And he brought some balance to the spectacular roof display…

I wrapped the back window in gold, shiny wrapping paper and put a lighted bow on it, which I bought for pretty cheap…

I also wrapped the front passenger side window with the same paper and put a bow on it… And the RV door, to the left, above, is wrapped in silver, shiny paper with blue lights around it…

We went simple inside with a little tree and we wrapped a filing cabinet, like a present, to prop it up…

I was planning on this Christmas not being such a good one considering I wasn’t able to spend it with my sister and mother for the first time in my life… But Tracey and I just made the best of it… I’m so glad we decided to #decorate because it really helped me forget about life for awhile and just enjoy the holidays… You can only do what you can with what you got… Simple as that…  Anyway, this was a special Christmas because it was the first one with Tracey…

And let me tell you folks, everyone decorated and I had some really Merry competition to face…

Here’s another #RV just down the road… She had #snowflakes projected on her vehicle….

With a cute Christmas display on the other side… And lights wrapped all around her roof…

This guy went for a Halloween/Christmas blend… Very different but a little more scary than festive… lol…

This display has the traditional #Frosty window with a #CandyCane entrance…

Above, was the same room with two window displays…

It’s hard to imagine you are out in the middle of the desert, isn’t it?

The weather around this time is like 40 degrees at night with nice 60 to 70 degree weather during the day…

Just enough cold to help get you into the Christmas spirit yet not enough to ruin it…

Believe it or not, being out in the middle of nowhere, away from all of the hustle and bustle at the stores… Away from all of the traffic on the streets and all of the holiday stress around you… makes for a much better holiday experience…

For Christmas to me is a holiday which is supposed to be simple but we make it a lot harder on ourselves with all of the commercialism and money… But when you take the money out of it and focus on the simple message Christmas brings, it becomes that magical holiday you remember as a child…

I’m not saying that everyone should stop buying presents or anything… And I understand Christmas becomes a lot more stressful when you have a family and kids… But we are the ones who make it hard on ourselves by buying into the whole commercialism of it all… If you actually control the environment around you and get rid of all of that buying/selling stress, Christmas shows itself to be a very simple, enjoyable holiday…

To put it simple, Christmas is what you make it… And if you feel you can’t get into the holiday spirit, I suggest you get away from it all and start simple… If you focus on the old classic films, making your own decorations and doing it all simply, I guarantee that Christmas spirit will hit you eventually… The reason the Christmas spirit is so hard to get into these days is because the tradition of it all is getting lost with the constant hounding of the competing Corporations who are trying to get your buck… Christmas is a  perfect example of how Corporations strip our country of tradition and heritage with their greed and competition… And in turn take the fun out of the holidays all together…

Now I really think about it, the desert is the perfect place to celebrate Christmas… Being out in the middle of nowhere allows me and my friends to focus on the simple things the holidays bring… We had Christmas movie nights… A lot of people made eggnog and christmas treats for everyone to enjoy… We even participated in a secret santa, which was a fun Christmas Eve activity…

We enjoyed all of the Christmas traditions without the #commercialism of it all! And yes, we even got snow without having to feel the chill it brings with it… Who would have thought I would have to go out into the middle of the desert to meet my true love and to discover the simpleness of Christmas again… It’s a strange life folks… Like seeing snow in the desert… lol..