Couple turns waste into yuletide village in a winter wonderland
Dubai — A Dubai-based couple from India has constructed a mini Christmas village made of waste, aiming to celebrate the festive season the eco-friendly way — with all the bang for less buck.
For the fifth year in a row, Orson and Shraddha Alex, along with their friend Alistair, have turned one man’s waste into a Christmas treasure.
Constructed along one wall of their living room, their nine-foothigh backdrop is themed on the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health – Velankanni, located in Chennai, India.
Made entirely of thermocol collected from warehouse dumpsites around Dubai, the impressive structure, which comprises nine separate pieces, wouldn’t be out of place in some of Dubai’s luxury hotels.
The trio spent three months bringing their idea to life, from waste collection to the finished product. In total, the mini village — which includes a snowcapped landscape made of cotton filling from pillows and a bridge leading to a manger made of thermocol — took 45 days to build, and about 100 man hours.
“After the scene is completed, I just sit there, lights off, and stare at it for half an hour to take it all in. I sit in complete silence and look at the months of hard work. It gives me so much peace and joy,” Orson told Khaleej Times during a visit to his home.
Surrounding the miniature Christmas scene is a wall of wooden stumps that were picked up (with permission) from a hotel in Dubai after the couple saw them dumped outside. In the corner lies their Christmas tree, which — although was bought — has been placed on a stack of tyres.
“We try to make use of waste we produce and waste we see around Dubai. Those tyres for instance, I just had to get all four of mine changed on my car. Rather than leaving the old ones for trash, we made a platform,” Shraddha said.
There were days when we would get home from work and start working on it, only to realise it’s 5am and nearly time for work again.”
Orson, expat
Labour of love
For this project, the trio did hit a snag on Day 25, as the whole backdrop collapsed due to structural issues. But Orson and Shraddha said that as with anything built “with a labour of love”, the trials and tribulations all add to the excitement of getting it right.
“We actually close our doors to visitors during the 45-day construction period because the house is upside down, mess is everywhere. But when they came to see it, they loved it. They stay for hours just so they can keep looking at all the little extra features. Little do they know, there had been all sorts of the drama that came with building it.”
Apart from the ornaments dotted around the village that had been collected along their travels over the years, the main features, including the church backdrop, bridge, snowcapped landscape and snowfall, are all made entirely out of just two products: thermocol and pillow filling.
“To get the effect of snowfall, we actually spent hours grating the thermocol and sprinkling it across the setting. There were days where we would get home from work and start working on it, only to realise it’s 5am and nearly time for work again,” Orson said. This is the fifth year in a row the couple have turned odds and ends into a Christmas centrepiece for next to nothing, and in 2017, the theme screamed all things Dubai.
Other than a feeling of satisfaction from creating their own Christmas scene from scratch, the couple said what they want people to realise is that it doesn’t have to cost the earth to decorate.