Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Cyrus Aldeman here again, a founder of Anchorage Trolley, and I wanted to shout to the world I love Christmas! I love everything about Christmas! From the Christmas music playing all day everyday to decorating Christmas Trees every year, my Cousin Trina left her Christmas up year round this year and she just changes the theme each season and/or for each holiday. Awesome Right!!!

You can do this too she won’t mind, she said it added a little more joy to her house during 2020!!

I bought this trolley a few years ago and named it, “The Green Machine”. It did not run and it was not in the best shape. However, it was in the perfect condition to convert into a play house for my nieces and nephew. I am is planning on adding a slide, an access hatch to the roof and guard rails around the roof so they can feel the wind in their hair as they stand on top of the world (trolley). 🙂

Unfortunately, some time has passed and I still haven’t started this project. I still plan on making a Trolley Playhouse, but until then I came up with the idea, “If you can decorate a tree why not decorate a Trolley?” The idea was born and I was so excited! I watch countless videos on YouTube to figure how to best accomplish this goal!

*Sidenote: I love YouTube! I use it every time I wanna learn different ways of doing something. Also Pinterest is pretty amazing for inspiration. Yeah I said it! If you don’t go to Pinterest for recipes you are missing out! LOL

Now that I had a plan and access to my father’s stash of left over Christmas lights. I was ready to start adding Christmas lights to my trolley!!!!!!!!!

Supplies and Tools I needed and used:

• Ladder
• Heat gun
• Clear Tape
• Stereo for music of course 🙂
• Christmas lights (as much as you can afford)
• Extension Cords
• and of course Coffee
• screws
• screw gun

Fun Fact: Alaska is Secretly the Coffee Capital of the WORLD! Seattle and other cities have their brews and roasts but we have Kaladi’s Brother Coffee. They are the catalyst to our community! They sever up a great cup of Jo, but they also step up at every chance they can to help our Alaskan Community by helping in fundraisers and even donating their time and resources at local events to show support!

After gathering all my tools and supplies I went to work. I started by taping the lights to the trolley, but because it was 16 degree Fahrenheit the tape was not sticking. I used the heat gun to adhere the tape to the trolley and warm up my fingers. This worked for a while, well until it didn’t. LOL ?

I have helped my family build and remodel a few homes over the years so I knew my way around a screw gun.

*Normally I would never put screws into a vehicle, but since I am planning on converting this trolley to a play house later. I made the decision that this is just first of the many times I am going to have to build and attach things to this trolley. Using the screw gun sped up the project and allowed me to achieve the look I was going for. If I was in warm climates the tape would of been enough. Although I am in alaska, in the winter at 16 degrees out and snowing, I had to do what I had to do. LOL

After about four and half hours and about 750 feet of Christmas lights I have completed Operation Light Up The Trolley!

This was so much fun and I am so glad I did this! I have already had a lot of neighbors and random people turn their cars around to after driving past to admire my Christmas Trolley.

Seeing the joy this project has brought them and my family I am so happy I did this. 2020 has been difficult but as we approach 2021 the light at the end of the tunnel is shinning brighter and brighter! I hope this brings you joy and a sense of wonder. What will 2021 bring? What can I do to make 2021 my year? Where will I travel? Where will I Explore? I encourage you to think about visiting Alaska! Meet our great Community you heard so much about, try our coffee, and ride a trolley!

#dingding

Your favorite Trolley Conductor

Cyrus

P.S.

If you like my blog please give us a like and a share. I will be writing new posts a few times each week about Anchorage and Alaska and how great it is up here 🙂