Finally, Fairy Doors for the Vertically Challenged!

Looking for unique outdoor garden sculptures?

Click here & shop for Garden Gnomes & other fantasy outdoor garden art at MissGnomer's Enchanted Garden Store!

More and more in recent years, people have come to recognize the needs of those who are (shall we say) vertically challenged and those who are faced with a regrettable excess of largeness in their daily surroundings. They need items and services more on their scale -- items like fairy doors, those wonderful little portals for the wee folk that have appeared in human structures here and there across the world. Now, everybody knows that the magical faerie-folk -- fairies, elves, sprites, gnomes, and the like -- tend to be small, even tiny, so it makes sense that they wouldn't be able to handle something as big as a human-sized door. Could you open the Jolly Green Giant's door? We think not. Obviously, then, the magical mini-people need doors their size, and it's the wise human who will provide them. Think of all the good luck you'll gain just by having the right-sized door on hand, especially for fairies and gnomes!

Gnome doors are a case in point. If you put one of these specialty doors at the base of your big human door or right beside it, you're basically inviting gnomes and their good luck into your house. Because gnomes do have a soft spot for humans, they're likely to take you up on your offer. Whether you believe in gnomes or not, these little doors are cute, and are quite the conversation-starter. Just remember to caution everyone not to close the door if they find it open; if one of the faerie-folk comes back to find he can't get back into your house, he might just abandon you, and nobody wants that.

These exquisite little wee folk accessories are especially popular in the United Kingdom, where there are numerous companies that make them; some will even personalize them for you. Probably the one place in North American that's best known for its fairy doors is Ann Arbor, Michigan, which at last count had twenty. There's even a charmingly small ticket window at the Ark Theater downtown, immediately below the human ticket window, where fairies, gnomes, and other tiny people can get tickets to shows like "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "The Beetles," and "Tempest." The fairy ticket window is accompanied by an equally tiny door, and seems to do quite a brisk business, as they're often sold out.

No one knows who, exactly, has been installing these tiny doors, which often lead to fully functional little rooms, including, in one case, a rather small but well-stocked general store (small for humans, of course, but wholly adequate for fairies, sprites, and gnomes). According to the experts on urban fairies, the wee folk have started making themselves at home in human cities because we've been encroaching on their natural habitats. There just aren't enough woodlands left, it seems, to support the magical people population. It behooves us, therefore, to provide even more access doors to let the faeries into our homes and businesses, whether we live in the wintry fastnesses of Michigan or in the sunny South. We can all use something magical in our lives, so why not open a door to some good luck?