Are you a Christmas Village Collector?

[Trish Bessette]

I have the Dept 56 North Pole village. Oh my goodness, has to be over 50 houses. HUGH.

The past few years I haven't set it up. It would take me a week at least to finish. It was amazing. Tiers of different levels, mountains, waterfalls, you name it. People would just parade through my little house to see it each year where I thought I should start charging admission

This year I'm just pulling out 15 or so with accessories. I have a really nice antique display case with 4 shelves that my Dad just gave me and I'm going to set up small scenes on each shelf.

With both DD's in basketball we are running crazy going here and there. One day I'll get the ambition to set the whole thing up again.

In fact, my oldest DD just said last night she wants to do it this coming weekend so I think you just got me motivated

 

[BCV513]

I have a small cheap village that I display every year. I would love to start collecting a nice Department 56 one. I just looked up the New England village and I absolutely love it! That might be my entire Christmas list this year.

 

[piney]

We haven't put ours up in about 3 years. We are thinking we will wait until we retire in a few more years to do the whole thing again. It is so much work to put it all up and then take it all down.

 

[ChristaDeVil]

I have a few pieces of Dicken's Village that I display on my mantle w/ Poly Fill stuffing as snow around the base of the houses.

 

[lvanleer]

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!

We collect Dickens Village and then have assorted other pieces from different Dept 56 collections that have caught our eye including Little Town of Bethlehem which gets displayed with my nativity scenes.....In fact we're planning a trip to a local nursery this weekend that has a great Christmas shop with Department 56 products.....I still have to figure out where I'm going to display all my pieces so my 5 cats do not destroy them.

 

[Katieinwonderland]

This is my in-laws Dickens village...we get it next year I can't wait to set that baby up with three kittens

 

[Teresa Pitman]

Wow! Piney, yours is just beautiful! And I love the others as well. I've never collected any of these and now I'm tempted...

Teresa

 

[rie'smom]

I collect reproductions of Putz glitter houses. I have several pictures but some are crooked because I didn't want to climb on a chair to take the photos:

In the hutch:

Church group:

colorful house group:

white and blue group:

snowman house group:

rustic house group:

pinky house group:

details:

 

[LuvDuke]

I"ve never heard of the glitter houses. What a beautiful collection.

Now, I've got to take photos of my Halloween village before I take it down.

 

[agentpleakley]

I collect reproductions of Putz glitter houses. I have several pictures but some are crooked because I didn't want to climb on a chair to take the photos:

In the hutch:

Church group:

colorful house group:

white and blue group:

snowman house group:

rustic house group:

pinky house group:

details:

Wow-- those are beautiful!!!

 

[rie'smom]

I"ve never heard of the glitter houses. What a beautiful collection.

Now, I've got to take photos of my Halloween village before I take it down.

Wow-- those are beautiful!!!

Thank-you. I saw them and they reminded me of my grandmother. I've decided to leave them up year round so that Ma'ma' always has a physical sort of presence. Goofy but comforting

LuvDuke, I'd love to see your Halloween Village! I'm thinking of trying my hand at constructing a Halloween glitter village for next year.

 

[piglet50]

that actually belongs to my ds. it's a mixture of several sets, whatever was given to him. several things reflect our lives like the lowes hardware anniversary piece. my dh works for lowes and won it at a party. also a greenhouse and bakery. activities my kids love. ds used to like setting it up but grew out of it. it went on the mantle of our house. it's a rock wall with the mantle that runs across the room, about 20 ft. the houses looked so pretty with the batting and mountains. it actually looked like it was set into the rocks behind it. sorry, no pictures.

 

[perla75]

Thanks all of you for sharing your descriptions of your villages & the pictures are fantastic!

Please keep sharing your photos & descriptions. I don't mind if your villages are Dept. 56 brand or not-you are still giving me great ideas!

I just ordered a school house for my first piece (I'm a teacher so I thought it was fitting ). It's from the Dept. 56 Original Snow Village.

I got it on Ebay for $26.00
For this year, I'm planning to also get 1 house and something animated-either the skating rink, sledding hill, or skiing hill.

 

[a1tinkfans]

I have quite a few pieces of dept 56, and set up takes FOREVER as I have lighted streets and walkways, etc....skating pond with skaters, mostly Heritage Village, I will try and post some pix to show.
I LOVE my collection despite the work it takes to "set it up and take it down" each year.

 

[mickeysgal]

I collect the Kurt Adler Snowtown series of Christmas village houses (retired). It took a long time to accumulate them but now I have all but one of them.

Storing them has been an issue. Amazing how much space they take up.

 

[LuvOrlando]

-

 

[rie'smom]

I have a bunch of Dept 56 houses from different collections that I set up on my entertainment center. I really love how they warm up the house during the holidays. I set them up on a timer to light up when the sun goes down. I like to mix real Dept 56 pieces with some much cheaper additions. For example, I have the mirror pond from Wal-mart and benches, snowmen and the trees that light up from somewhere equally inexpensive.

Hmmm, bringing them up makes me wonder if I could get away with putting them up this week. I really could use some cheering up early this year I think I'll do it tomorrow, thanks for the inspiration guys

Heck yeah, seeing them put up will make you feel better!

 

[amyy]

Love the pictures everyone is posting. I have the North Pole and I just love. I also have the Snow Village Halloween one. But I haven't put either up for at least 3 years due to apartment living. They are stored in my mother's basement. I keep thinking I need to sell them but just can't bring myself to do so.

 

[JimFitz]

I knew I liked you.

 

[LuvDuke]

My Halloween Village display. It comes down this week to make room for the Christmas Village display.