Highway to the Holidays: The Lowe’s Holiday Living 6-ft White & Gold Black Nutcracker

It seems like just yesterday that I was reviewing Halloween decorations like Lowe’s Haunted Living 12-Ft Talking LED Bone Collector Animatronic. Sure, the spooky season is over (for now!) but that doesn’t mean that the fun has to stop. Why not take a look at some Christmas decorations?
Lowe’s recently sent me their Holiday Living 6-ft White & Gold Black Nutcracker to review. And who doesn’t love a good nutcracker during the holidays? Here’s what I thought of this seasonal staple.

Lowe’s Holiday Living 6-ft White & Gold Black Nutcracker

The Holiday Living 6-ft White & Gold Black Nutcracker retails for $129, and is available to purchase at Lowe’s stores or from Lowe’s online for delivery. Here are the specs:
— Indoor or outdoor use
— cULus approved adaptor 150 warm white LED
— Metal lawn stakes included
— Pop up construction for easy assembly and storage.

Cracking open the box. Image by Paul Benson.
For a 6-ft figure, the Nutcracker arrived in a fairly compact and lightweight box. That’s thanks to the pop up assembly, which allows you to break down the Nutcracker after the holidays and store it back in the box.
Assembly for the Nutcracker was fairly straightforward. Like a lot of decorations, you’ll start at the base and work up:

Adding the leg poles to the base. Image by Paul Benson.
Metal parts are secured to each other using wingnuts. After attaching the leg poles, you add a mid frame from which the legs and boots are hung:

Getting ready to deploy the legs. Image by Paul Benson.
Untying some twist ties releases the legs, allowing the boots to drop down:

After dropping the boots. Image by Paul Benson.
The boots are then secured to the base using included zip ties:

Connecting the rings on the boots and base with zip ties. Image by Paul Benson.
A body pole is attached to the mid frame, which serves as a base to drape the head and body piece of the Nutcracker. Power cords are connected between the body and the legs. Then the skirt of the Nutcracker’s uniform is secured to the mid frame with more wingnuts.
Finally, the arms are attached. Each arm has two metal prongs which slot into corresponding holes on each shoulder. Then the power connector for the lights is connected between the body and the arms.

A view at the back of the nutcracker, showing the power connector. Image by Paul Benson.
Here is the finished Nutcracker, with crown added:

The completed Nutcracker. Image by Paul Benson.
Of course, the true final step is plugging in the Nutcracker to go with your holiday lights. Here’s a look at night:

The Nutcracker all lit up; the lights also twinkle. Image by Paul Benson.