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Because this thread is still getting many visits, I am inserting an announcement we posted on Ted's site on October 30, 2011:
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Announcement, October 30, 2012
After years of acting, performing music, and collecting and writing about his favorite Christmas traditions, "Papa" Ted Althof has succumbed to illness, on October 29, 2012. A Celebration of his life and work is planned, although we have no details yet.
When he realized his was ill, Ted worked with CardboardChristmas.com to establish this archive of his "Putz house" site, which will, hopefully, continue to inform, encourage, and bless other lovers of Christmas tradition for years to come. In the coming weeks, we will be making necessary adjustments (such as changing the contact information), but our primary goal is to keep the information on this site as useful and available as Ted always intended it to be.
In the meantime we appreciate Ted's diligence, his generousity, and his love of Christmas traditions. We also pray for those close to him who showed so much support in his last months.
If you need to contact us before we get everything switched over, please use the Cardboard Christmas contact page.
To paraphrase Dickens, Ted was a man who:
honored Christmas in his heart, and tried to keep it all the year.
I don't think there is a more fitting tribute than to follow his example.
Paul Race, Howard Lamey, Maria Cudequest, Nan Corby, Jack Ahearn, and the rest of the CardboardChristmas.com family.
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A little bird told me that one person who helped Ted's heirs carve a pathway through his house will be posting some of them on eBay soon. Here's the note:
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Some of you have noticed already, but the gal whose elderly father bought a truckload of Ted's houses from Ted's daughter and granddaughter last fall has started listing the houses on ebay. I have been in contact with her since last year, when she very kindly agreed to sell me two houses that were in Ted's collection that were purchased by me and sent to Ted to photograph in the early days of Ted's website. In order to sell them to me, she had to stop the ebay auctions, and she made some folks mad in doing that. I apologize again for causing that conflict, but it has all turned out super. We have become friends.
I had been lobbying this lady to start listing the houses around Labor Day, and she managed to carve out some time to do that. She is raising four kids and works too, so it isn't easy for her. I have no stake in these remaining houses, but will be bidding on some that interest me.
Sorting thru FORTY large "banana" freight boxes to find houses that might go together was impossible. The boxes fill her father's basement,and the only spot available for photographing is on top of the washing machine. So she is listing the houses just as they come out of the boxes, and for the same starting bid. I had suggested a lower starting bid for some of the more common houses, but she is interested in just getting them listed, and I can understand that given the number of houses that are involved.
As of tonight, she has listed the contents of three of the forty boxes, so you can imagine the task ahead.
I just wanted to let you know this is happening, in case you were interested in having a "Ted" house.
I am told that some boxes don't have houses in them, but rather fences, trees, and lights, too.
The seller's ebay name is "justachick." She will also eventually be
listing under her father's account which is "papscellar."
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