Creative Chaos--Christmas In July-What Gives?

This post is part of the Creative Chaos over on RaggamuffinSoul--where the creatives gather each Thursday to exchange ideas big and small.



It's July and I'm thinking about Christmas. It's crazy, I know, but in the field of worship and music minsitry you have to start thinking about Christmas in July.  Consequently you are thinking about Easter at Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July at Christmas.  It's a messed up world.

I thought I would blog this time about a Christmas set that we did a couple of years ago at my former church.  The first picture you see is the Worship space.  It was wide open with theatrical lighting and such.  The Christmas production we were doing called for a massive procenium arch and red velvet curtain.  Yea! Right--who has one of those laying around that you can rent.

So, necessity and creativity forced us to think outside the box.  The second picture you see is the schematic of the arch.  We used (4) 4X8 luan sheets across the top and (2) down the side to create the opening.  We framed them with 1''x4''x8' boards to create our box.  We hoisted the four cross pieces up on a lift and chained them to the inside light cove just above the stage.  We attached the side pieces with small screws and presto we had a stage.  

The red velvet curtain was actually red gossamer from Stumps Party supplie.  We had about 25-30  15' lengths attached to a ledger board and screwed them in to the top of the arch.  It didn't have to open or close--but just provide a background for the performace.  You can tell by the pictures that the colors really popped off the stage.  I think we spent less than $150 to create this look.  The large holly leaves were blown up using a overhead projector, think insulation board and paint.

So--what tricks do you ahve for Christmas sets?