Our Stranger Things Upside Down Christmas Tree Christmas Card

This year for our family Christmas card, I was inspired by our upside down Christmas tree – and our love for the Stranger Things series on Netflix. Our kids haven’t seen the show yet, but they were great sports in playing along with the theme. As I was doing research and seeking inspiration, the song “Favorite Things” came to mind and it was just so perfect. We made a list of some of our family’s favorite things and printed the song on the back of our postcards:

Soccer and game nights and cute cockapoodles
Facebook and Netflix and tacos and noodles
Going to church and cheese shaped like a string
These are a few of our favorite things

When the dog gets a bad haircut
When the Wi-Fi’s drab
We simply remember our favorite things
and then we don’t feel so bad

For those of you who haven’t yet seen Stranger Things (and I can’t think of a reason that anyone would not want to watch it), I will explain a bit of what’s going on in our card – and try not to give any spoilers.

Check out my Stranger Things board on Pinterest

Stranger Things is a sci-fi/thriller type show set in the early ’80s. Think Stand By Me, Goonies, Ghostbusters, Sixteen Candles and Beetlejuice all wrapped up into one.

First, the Stranger Things title sequence.

If you are into typography, you’ll love this video on the making of the title sequence. I also found an online tutorial showing how to create a similar design – which I used on our card.

Our upside down Christmas tree – in chroma order, of course!

The Upside Down

In Season 2, the Upside Down is introduced. It’s somewhat of a parallel universe – an alternate dimension. Our upside down Christmas tree was my inspiration for our Christmas card design this year.

Stranger Things – Steve Harrington

Steve Harrington

The man – the hair. There are so many things I could say about Steve, but I don’t want to spoil anything. I Photoshopped Steve’s hair onto my husband’s head (he’s such a sport). Steve had an awesome bat with nails for fighting the evil monsters – can you find two of those bats in our card?

Stranger Things – Eleven and her Eggo waffles

Eleven

Eleven is one of the main characters. She has superpowers and loves Eggo waffles. We paid homage to her with the “December 11” calendar page in the background and Eggo waffles served on a vintage ’80s Ronald McDonald plate.

Joyce and her Christmas Lights

Joyce

Joyce is one of the moms in the series. She is played by Winona Ryder (who just slays this role!) Joyce finds she is able to communicate through Christmas lights – so she strings them throughout her home. I’m channeling my “inner Joyce” on this card. I pretty much had her outfit in my closet – with the exception of her brown corduroys.

The Boys

Mike, Will, Lucas, and Dustin are four friends from Hawkins Middle School. They are into Dungeons and Dragons, Ghostbusters and going to the video arcade. This scene is one of my favorites from the series.

Dustin befriends a creature whom he names “Dart”. I won’t say any more about him, but my son is holding Dart in our card.

Stranger Things – Dustin and Dart

Stranger Things – Drawings

The Drawings

Again, I don’t want to spoil anything, but these drawings are strewn throughout Joyce’s house – taped to the floor, walls, and ceiling.

Stranger Things – Mad Max

Mad Max

Max transfers to Hawkins Middle School in Season Two. She has a unique style, and since my daughter is very particular about what she wears (there’s no way I was going to get her to wear a dress!), I was able to bribe her with a soda of her choice to wear an outfit similar to Max’s.

The Demogorgon

This is pretty much the stuff nightmares are made from. In Season One, “The Monster” is played by an actor in a costume. I’m thinking with the success of “Stranger Things'” first season, Netflix gave the Duffer Brothers a larger budget since Season Two was much more cinematic. The Monster/Demogorgon was then created using CGI. We have a demogorgon poinsettia on our card.

Barb

And last but not least, we can’t forget Barb – but unfortunately, much like everyone in Hawkins, we did. Sorry Barb!

Well, there you go! We hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at this year’s family Christmas card. Here’s a peek at a few cards from Christmas’ past. Merry Christmas!