Are you a Christmas Village Collector?

[perla75]

I'm starting a Christmas Village Collection this year-decided to go with the Dept. 56 Original Snow Village.

I just purchased a school building (I'm a teacher) & plan to purchase 1 store, maybe a house, & an animated skating rink or animated sledding hill.

I would love to see photos of your Christmas village and/or some advice on getting started-ideas for "snow" (we have 2 cats so no loose snow), foundations, cheap places to buy buildings and accessories, setting up lighting, etc...

Thanks!

 

[agentpleakley]

I don't have the Christmas village - but I am a Fontanini collector. I'll have to see if I have any good photos. Since I collect something different - I can't give you much help there - but I can tell you what I have done with my set up as my collection has grown and grown and grown.

I put a door (an extra from when we were building our house) on a buffet type piece of furniture in my living room. I cover it with a white tablecloth. Then to get all of the pieces of mmy village on the door -- I have various size boxes which I have wrapped in burlap (to emulate sand for Bethlehem) - you could you the snow that you put underneath the tree. This gives me various heights for different buildings etc.

You can find inexpensive accessories (bushes, trees etc) in the train dept. of hobby stores (if the scale is the same)... I have also just bought various types of greenery and used it as accents. My guess is you could find some good pine picks around this time to use as trees.

Lighting -- the only lighting I use is that coming from my buildings. It really is enough. If you want more, you can buy the little battery operated mini-mini lights.

Good luck. I really enjoy mine. (Would you believe that the cheapest I have ever found Fontanini pieces is at WDW?).

 

[sorul82?]

I'm not a "collector" anymore but I do have a Snow Village collection. I haven't added anything in years. I bought a lot of houses after Christmas or at Hechts on black Fridays. I also caught a few moving sales where I got 2 or 3 retired items at 50% off. I use batting for snow and it works great for hiding cords.

 

[denisem]

Are you SURE you don't want to collect Dept. 56 Dicken's Village or New England Village instead?

I have 35+ Dicken's Village dwellings and inherited my mom's NE Village - all stored away. I burned out after 20 yrs of setting 'em up.

I displayed mine in various ways: before they outgrew the 4' x 8' plywood over card tables, I stuck to cotton batting "snow" (yes, because of cats) and it worked well. (Believe it or not, the kitties were fairly careful walking among the village, only knocking down various pedestrians on a daily basis.)

Mine was against a wall, so I'd make "hills" of the empty village boxes ("softened" with wads of newspaper/whatever & also covered with cotton batting) in the back & draped lighted garland around the perimeter. Gave it a nice backdrop. I also cut some of the cobblestone road into meandering "pathway" shapes & pieces leading to buildings to bring it to scale.

I later split them into "vignettes" around the house. I.E, all the "food shops" (bakery, butcher, fish monger, fruit & nut store, etc.) were displayed in the kitchen bay window...others on the mantle, tables, etc.

My brother built a big 3-level stepped "box" (think wedding cake) for my mom's set. Her Christmas tree sat on the top level, with the lower levels covered with houses/buildings. (It LOOKED really cool, but my 50 y.o. knees were complaining after crawling around for *hours* setting it up. )

Have fun!

 

[JimFitz]

I collect Dept 56 Christmas in The City series. Have not bought in a while.....maybe add more this year. I really enjoy going to our local stores and seeing their displays.

 

[DVCisME]

I have Dept 56 an extensive collection. You can purchase them on ebay.

 

[PatriciaH]

I collect Dept. 56 Dickens Village and Christmas in The City. I just got Hollydales Dept Store (have wanted that one for a while) on Ebay for $8.99!

 

[TLSnell1981]

I have a fairly, extensive collection of Dept. 56. I have several tables, set at different heights, to display my "villages". This is my DGDs favorite holiday tradition. We have a "story" behind each of our villages. I am particularly fond of the churches.

 

[LeeLeeLuvsDisney]

I've never heard of Dept. 56. I just looked at their web site...very nice! I started my Christmas village collection about 3 years ago, so it's still a small village! I'm collecting the Lemax Caddington Village collection, which looks like a little bit more on the lower end from Dept. 56.

 

[LuvDuke]

I collect Department 56's "Christmas in the City", the Snow Village "Halloween", and the Dickens "Halloween" (now retired).

I'll some photos of the Halloween village as it's going to come down in a few days to make way for the Christmas Display.

 

[JennaTX]

I love my collection of Dept 56 Original Snow Village. Besides the tree, it is the favorite thing my kids and I put up (I don't think DH likes it as much since he has to figure out all of the wires for lights!)

I have built in book shelves in my living room that I display most of it in. But I also put them all around the house...in the kitchen, the guest bath, the dining room, wherever!

I also started my DD her collection of the North Pole, I love that series too!!!

 

[Diznygrl]

I have the Toontown Christmas village houses that they used to sell at Disneyland several years ago. I've added little details here and there to make it more village-y, like extra characters, trees, stuff like that. This year I got one of those plastic Jolly Trolley toys they sell at Disneyland and I plan on decorating it with little bows and garland to add to the village. I'll post pictures after I have it set up!

 

[Dax]

We collect houses...basically its a hodge-podge of sets really...some handed down from the in laws..others we pick up every year.

If anyone is ever in the Orlando area, and happens to go to The Florida Mall, there is a Dept. 56 store there...The backroom has all the different "sets" setup. Its quite amazing.

 

[LuvDuke]

I collect Dept 56 Christmas in The City series. Have not bought in a while.....maybe add more this year. I really enjoy going to our local stores and seeing their displays.

I knew I liked you.

 

[LuvDuke]

I collect Dept 56 Christmas in The City series. Have not bought in a while.....maybe add more this year. I really enjoy going to our local stores and seeing their displays.

I knew I liked you.

 

[Maggimus]

Unfortunately I bought my Disney Village and have decided not to display it.. So I added it to Craigslist yesterday. I'll miss it, but hopefully someone who will enjoy it more will get it

 

[piney]

We inherited our first 8 houses from my MIL. Then we went crazy collecting for a few years, received many as Christmas gifts. I think the key to a good village is adding a lot of trees, people and snow:

 

[java]

I collect Dept 56 Christmas in The City series. Have not bought in a while.....maybe add more this year. I really enjoy going to our local stores and seeing their displays.

Same here. I actually didn't collect them. My husbands birthday is in December and my mom decided 18 years ago that she would buy him those for his birthday every year.
So technically it's her collection that is in my house.

I love the door idea because I have run out of space for ours- one year it was under the tree and that worked for a year or two- but now it's just too big. We have asked her to stop but she always finds the
"perfect" one. Really she does try to find one that reflects our lives at the time. So as much as I disliked them at first they really are special to me now.

 

[Snoopymom]

I have the fishing cabins and lodge with the treehouse, lake, firepit, iceskaters, camper, deer, lots of trees, etc. I put them on the mantel, sprinkle the plastic snow over it and there's an antique mirror above the mantel, so I drape greenery with lights over the corners of the mirror with a simple gold star that hangs down above the village, gives me that sitting under the stars feeling of peace.

Dh also gave me the Ford Dealership when we bought an old Mustang a while back and I set it up on a table with an auto mechanic guy, some old cars and for fun I stand an Abominable Snowmonster from Rudolph on the roof with a car in his hand...guess that would be wrong this year...and maybe the piece will be worth a lot more some day .

Thanks for getting me excited for Christmas

 

[HunnyPots]

Here is my village. It is an inexpensive set from Kohls that I've been collecting for a few years. I probably won't be adding any more to it though. From what I've seen, the newer pieces don't have the same detail or quality that I like in the older pieces. If I can find a collection I like in the same scale I may add from that.