The creators of a Holiday Train Garden are being forced to find another location due to rising rent in President Joe Biden’s (D) economy, WBAL-TV reported Sunday.
For the past 30 years, crowds have enjoyed the elaborate display at Marley Station Mall in Maryland, according to the report.
Holiday train garden without home due to rent increase at mall | Click on the image to read the full story https://t.co/z7CpleSdLk
— WBAL-TV 11 Baltimore (@wbaltv11) December 17, 2023
However, conductor Jon Ward said rent for the display is rising from $65 a month to $2,500 a month. He was unsuccessful at negotiating with owners about the price, and now the nonprofit will have to find another place for the display.
Video footage shows children and adults enjoying the train garden that has become a tradition in the area:
The holiday train garden at Marley Station Mall will shut down before Christmas. New mall ownership is increasing rent to a number the nonprofit cannot afford. How you can help - @ 10:30 & 11 p.m. @wbaltv11 pic.twitter.com/jgkJJZLUfg
— Tommie Clark (@TommieClarkWBAL) December 16, 2023
“Unfortunately, this move has overshadowed what the true meaning of this is — keeping tradition alive, seeing the kids light up when they see all the new things we make year-to-year,” Ward explained.
According to the Fire Museum of Maryland, holiday train gardens are traditions that have delighted people for centuries:
South German immigrants are believed to be the first to set up Christmas Gardens, which were religious in nature and were in their homes. Usually it was a Manger scene or a crèche with a small fence around it.
In the mid 1800s, some people started adding small wooden trains around the outside of the fence that children could push around. During the Victorian Era, train sets were gradually becoming electrified, and they soon took their place in the gardens.
Those who helped Ward with the train garden will have to watch their creation be taken down. He claimed the display drew 1,800 people to the mall over the past few months.
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The move will also affect the area’s needy community members.
“People in Anne Arundel County will also miss out on meals when the train garden derails. It’s free to walk in, but donations go to feeding the hungry,” the WBAL-TV report said.
Right now, the creators are looking for another space to continue the tradition.
Video footage from 2021 shows another holiday train garden in Baltimore.
It is important to note that inflation jumped slightly in November, “marking the thirty-second consecutive month with annual prices rising significantly faster than the two percent target seen as healthy by the Federal Reserve,” Breitbart News reported Tuesday.
