HOLIDAYS ON TRACK IN WINDOW

The holidays are right on track at the Hutson Furniture store where electric trains circle a scale model of Silverton, Colo., and Santa and his reindeer travel overhead.

It is all part of Hutsons Christmas window, which will be unveiled to the public this Thanksgiving morning.

The holiday scene will be on display through Jan. 1. The trains will travel around the tracks 13 hours a day, from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Hutson's has had a Christmas window for 37 years.

During the first 29 years, the Christmas window scene was different every year.

But in recent years, Hutson's has recycled some of the more popular Christmas scenes.

The Silverton display was first used in 1989, said store owner Charles Hutson.

It was expanded and used again in 1995.

The Silverton layout is a popular one, Hutson said. The family used to visit the Silverton area every summer in the early 1970s.

Trains have always been a part of the Christmas decorations in some fashion. Last year's old-fashioned Victorian Christmas scene included an electric train circling the base of a Christmas tree.

The Hutson family had a Christmas window display up the street at its Furniture Fair store for 18 years. But that store closed this fall, leaving the Hutsons with only the Hutson's Furniture window to decorate.

Elaborate Christmas window scenes are rare today. "It is ultra, ultra expensive,"said Hutson.

At his store, he said, the Christmas window is a family tradition. The whole family helps out. Richard Stout of Stout Sign Co. does the artwork."We get a lot of enjoyment out of doing it," Hutson said.

On Wednesday afternoon, paper still covered the Christmas window, shielding the decorations from public view.

Wednesday, Chris Hutson stepped gingerly over a set of tracks on the nearly finished layout. The Silverton scene includes eight separate trains.

Trains on the outer loop can travel more than 1,000 miles over the holiday season, Hutson said.(Chris Hutson said he and others in the family would put the finishing touches on the scene Wednesday night, including covering the layout in "snow."He said the white polyurethane foam snow and blue lighting are key components to the Christmas scene.

Holiday music is played over outside speakers. Train sounds, made by the electric trains, also can be heard, thanks to microphones that have been installed on the layout."Kids love the trains," Chris Hutson said.

He said his son has watched the family install the tracks and tunnels for this year's display. "My son is 16 months old. We couldn't pry him away from it."Chris Hutson said they have simplified the track operation so that there isn't more than one train on a track. "Derailments are really a bad deal," he said as he stood atop the layout.

Hutson said they had to put steel wheels on the trains so they would hold up under all the use.

The Hutsons have the trains serviced every year so they will be in good operating shape for the next holiday season.)