As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Fake, with 1,000 lights already entwined on it's branches.
We buy real wreaths and garland to trim the railings and doors, and light a "Christmas Wreath" Yankee Candle, so our home smells authentic.
I love real trees but we have a fake one. Its a pre-lit one and I like not having to string the lights. Plus, no needles to vacuum up and with three kids, a dog and two cats, I have enough cleaning to do.
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My Happy Place
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"When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable." ~ Walt Disney
For the past two years, I've wanted to buy one of the fake pre-lit ones on clearance after Christmas, and I still haven't done it. So, it's real for us. We always cut our own too until the last couple of years when Home Depot had great big ones for under $20! The gas to drive to the forest cost more than that!
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Ours are all fake. I'd prefer a real one, but since we generally host Christmas and I have family members who are allergic to pine trees, we have to do fake. Michael keeps saying we'll get a real potted one to put out on the porch and plant somewhere after Christmas, but we haven't done it yet.
We had 3 of the pre-lit variety...each year more and more of the lights died. So last year we spent HOURS stripping off the dead lights and restringing them with LED lights. As I recall, it took upwards of SIX HOURS to delight the parlor tree and put lights back on it. The other two only took an hour or so apiece.
Always real trees and always at least two! We get our big living room tree at Cheap Charlie's because it's tradition. Been getting it there for three decades. I can actually see the lot from the train in the morning, and when I see them setting out the trees in late November it makes me so flippin' excited! Then, Zack always gets his own tree that's the same height as him, and we usually try to chop it down ourselves from one of the farms in Half Moon Bay. This year's model will be about 5'9"!
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Karen, aka Zack's Mom - Lover of all Things Disney and the San Francisco Giants!
I have a prelit fake one. I saw a tree that was predecorated and you just grab the center and pull it up and it's all done but I threw the catalog out and now I can't find it. That would be perfect. I would still add my disney ornaments but it would be too easy to put up and take down. DD has asthma so we can't have real trees and I'm allergic to cleaning up pine needles until Easter
We have a fake one (actually, we have about 4 different fake ones - all different sizes - which one we put up just depends on our holiday plans). We used to get a real one but haven't for about 5 years.
When we do put up a tree, it's fake. If Mom's up to it, will do that this year. Otherwise it'll be the suction hooks and ornaments on the LR window - SUPER fake!
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Sharon - Kitty and me
2013 Scrapbook pages count: 631 / 350
2014 Scrapbook pages count: 60 / 250
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We get our big living room tree at Cheap Charlie's because it's tradition. Been getting it there for three decades. 
I can actually see the lot from the train in the morning, and when I see them setting out the trees in late November it makes me so flippin' excited! Then, Zack always gets his own tree that's the same height as him, and we usually try to chop it down ourselves from one of the farms in Half Moon Bay. This year's model will be about 5'9"!
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