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Nathan’s plywood Santa, sleigh and reindeer lawn display made from New Old Stock patterns

pam kueber - Updated: June 22, 2021

Retro Renovation stopped publishing in 2021; these stories remain for historical information, as potential continued resources, and for archival purposes.

douglas fir plywood promotion plywood santa and reindeerOh, how clever our dear readers can be, with their eBay searches. Nathan made a wonderful score with a whole bunch of New Old Stock paper patterns from Douglas Fir Plywood meant to be transformed into holiday lawn art. Which he (or a friend?) did!  In our uploader of readers’ holiday decorating over the weekend he wrote:

Vintage paper patterns from Douglas Fir Plywood promotion. Patterns bought off ebay, created and assembled new. Fresh snow last night in Minnesota 🙂 Nathan Anderson

plywood reindeer plansNathan also uploaded one of the 4’x 6′ “posters” before it was cut. Even just framing one of these and using it as wall art would be wonderful. 

Of course, this reminds me of Mike’s U-Bild Santa set — patterns for which are still available today. But NOS from the (what?) 1960s? That’s upping the degree of difficulty quite a bit. In fact, I heard from another reader, Jake, who said he found a stash of similar posters made by the Fir Plywood Association. Stuff’s coming out of attics and folks are seeing the value rather than tossing — good to hear!

U-Bild Santa and Elves retro christmas lawn ornaments

Above: Two mystery readers also uploaded photos of their wooden lawn ornaments. One was made using U-Bild patterns, the other, I’m not sure.

Thanks for sharing, Nathan — and the snow: picture perfect! I’m very envious of your find — New Old Stock! — I would have bid hard against you for them!

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24 comments

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  1. Doug Steinbach says

    I have a set of 4 reindeer team with christmas bells, a Santa Claus with Christmas wreath, and a Christmas sleigh withNoel singers. All are original 1956 from Douglas Fir Plywood Ass’n in their original packing envelope. They are in perfect condition and had been stored in side, untouched. Does anyone know the value of these?

    • Pam Kueber says

      Hi Doug, are you saying you have cut outs complete never used? Or, the pattern?

      Since patterns are still available today I’d suggest those are the starting place for comps for those.

  2. Suzy says

    I saved our family Santa in his sled and one reindeer that my dad made free hand (and I have my dads reindeer pattern). They were plywood and mounted on our roof. My mom hand painted them, I need to repaint them and make more reindeer! My brother made a Santa driving a red a 55 Chevy and hand painted it for his roof ?

  3. Shiffara says

    I have the Douglas Fir Nativity patterns and would like to mount & seal them this year. Has anyone found any sealant products that will seal good and not yellow? Also, any suggestions on what to mount them to? I’ve heard that the plywood starts to swell and separate on the edges from moisture. Advice appreciated! Thanks!

  5. Lynn Buchanan says

    I still have the Santa pictured with the U-Bild elves, and the pattern is still available. My Dad made THREE of them, and modified them so the arm waved, with a small motor. This was some time in the lat 1960s. His is the only one still working, and all have been repainted (by the Art Dept. at our local HS!) several times. Dad came across the original paper pattern still available (he’s retired with lots of time for crazy computer searches!), and re-did his with the original paper. It looks gorgeous! Mine is still painted-over, but I may have to re-do it also. . .plus get the arm “waving” again! These bring back so many memories–thanks for sharing!