department 56

[Tiggeroo]

does anybody collect these holiday houses. I'm really thinking about starting a collection and might look on ebay to get started. It doesn't have to be the actual dpt 56.
How do you display yours? Do you only do it at Christmas?

 

[4cruisin]

We have quite a few of the Dicken's Village pieces. Dh does a nice job displaying them on our entertainment center but we are running out of room. I haven't added any larger pcs in a couple of years.

If you get serious about collecting the Dept. 56 pieces, get ready to shell out some serious bucks. They can be kind of expensive.

 

[ead79]

I collect the Dept. 56 villages--mostly Christmas in the City series with some Dickens Village pieces as well. I also found a discontinued Disney Dept. 56 village on eBay and bought several pieces of that.

I only display mine at Christmas. I basically just set them up neatly on tables. Once we get a house I would like to figure out how to set up a larger display with snow and trees.

 

[Daisy Duck 5]

We have the Christmas in the City Dept. 56. We have 4 buildings and the tree that goes with it. We got everything but one building on sale for 1/2 price.

 

[Briarmom]

We collect the Original Snow Village (I WISH we'd done the North Pole Village...it is so much more whimsical) and the Halloween Village (which is my favorite!)
We display them only at Halloween and Christmas.

4crusin is right. It can get VERY pricey. I have had some luck finding half price pieces at stores that are closing down, but I think all my Halloween pieces were full price.
Good luck!

 

[Tiggeroo]

i've seen some on ebay for not so bad a price. What I'd like to find is a starter set with some basic pieces that I can add to. I also want to do the halloween.

 

[tigerdragon]

I also display mine on top of our entertainment center, out the the reach of small children. I know a lady who displays some of her favorite pieces year round in a curio cabinet. It is very pretty.

 

[mickeyfan2]

We have about 35 of these buildings. We display ours in two hutched, bookcases and glass cabinets in our kitchen. I heard of a person who has shelves near the ceiling in her DR and LR and they are on them.

 

[mickeyfan2]

We collect the Original Snow Village (I WISH we'd done the North Pole Village...it is so much more whimsical) and the Halloween Village (which is my favorite!)
We display them only at Halloween and Christmas.

We have many pieces (but no where near all) of the North Pole Village. My favorite is the original Santa's house that was only available the first year of the North Pole Village.

 

[sorcerormickey]

We have about 15 buildings plus a bunch of accessories. All different series - but mostly the Elf Village and North Pole Series. We try to add at least one a year. I really like the whimsical ones with flying, rotating reindeer, stuff like that.

We have a sort-of bridge element that runs along the top of the columns that separate the living room from the dining room - approx 15 feet long, about 8 feet high with a 15 foot high ceiling. We display them up there and they are BEAUTIFUL at night all lit up!

I can't wait for Christmas!! We were just at the Hallmark store buying ornaments!!

 

[sorcerormickey]

My favorite is the original Santa's house that was only available the first year of the North Pole Village.

We have that one along with the Reindeer barn. They are the first 2 we bought!!

 

[jennyL]

I collect the Original Snow Village and the Halloween collection. I have about 50 buildings and tons of accessories. At my old house I had a ledge above the bathroom in my vaulted foyer that I placed alot on and then the rest went in a curio cabinet. The Halloween were in the guest room and then brought downstairs for October. I leave them out year round as I think they are too pretty and too expensive to hide away. LOL Now for my new house they are still currently in their boxes in the living room but I will be placing them above my kitchen cabinets in tspace below te ceiling. I had receptacles placed up there with a switch to turn then on. The rest will go in the cabinet from the last house and above some shelving we are adding to the office. I'm not sure about Halloween but it may have to start being a seasonal decoration as much as I hate it.

It can be an expensive collection but it you watch for sales especially after the retirement list comes out otherwise they aren't allowed to place them on sale then you can get some decent deals. I also have two brothers so I keep a wish list that they can just purchase from. It makes my gifts much better for me and its easy for them.

 

[MrsJackSparrow]

I collect the old Disney Parks Village (I believe I only need Tinkerbell's to complete the set) as well as Snow Village. And the Disney pieces usually, too, from North Pole Village. Permanently on display are one of my Coca-Cola buildings and Marshall Field's, along with a Lemax village Chinese restaurant. I am not a village snob and mix pieces from other collections. My brother has nearly the complete Alpine Village shying away from the Sound of Music pieces and the redundant churches (he has one, I believe). He puts up a spectacular display just before Thanksgiving that stays up until after New Year's. Most of my pieces are still in storage as we moved last year. Happy collecting!

 

[emilymad]

When I was younger my mom started collecting the New England Village for me and my brothers. Each year one of us would get to pick out a new house. It was quite a collection. They were displayed with snow, trees, etc on top of the entertainment center. As the collection grew more tables around the house were added. We are all grown now so we aren't buying more houses. Once we have houses of our own we each have a collection waiting to go with us. I love the houses and I am so glad that my mom started this tradition for us. Needless to say, I am way more excited by this then my brothers. Hopefully, they will marry nice women who will appreciate it. It does get expensive and it is a lot of work to put up and take down every year. They look so nice lit up and it doesn't seem like Christmas until they are out.

 

[WDWAurora]

My grandparents do the original snow village from dept. 56. They only use that one. Some can be hard to mix and match due to scale, so be careful with that. My grandparents are also very careful to only buy traditional looking pieces-nothing too modern. There are no cars, etc. in their village, which has made it difficult over the past couple years because that's what is popular. They also have several of the Washington, D.C. pieces. They do an elaborate setup with fake snow, trees, etc etc etc. It is beautiful.

 

[happybratpack]

Warning...it's addicting and expensive.

I started with Dickens Village, then added Christmas in the City and now the North Pole series. I also have the old Disney park ones (I have an extra fire dept if anyone needs it, btw) I don't have them up year round, but would like to as soon as I figure out where to put them. I don't buy all Dept 56 accessories though, like fences, mountains, etc. Michaels, Hobby Lobby, etc have much better deals on stuff like that and I think they look just as good.

I have a "mystery room" in my house that I think was supposed to be a breakfast area that I've kind of turned into a reading room. I might put up bookshelves all along one wall and put them there. I was SO excited when I bought this house because it had built in bookshelves - wouldn't you know they weren't deep enough for most of the pieces!!

My sister has collected the North Pole series for years and years and has them up in her living room all the time. They look great, I'll dig around for a pic and post it.

Have fun! Oh, I always try to buy the pieces after they're retired and the stores are able to discount them. It saves quite a lot!

Geez, I'm rambling today.

 

[Jeafl]

I collect the Snow Village pieces. I think at last count we had over 100 pieces, including accessories. I only put them up at Christmas, and it takes at least 2 full days to set it up.

I have tons of counter space in my kitchen, and I set up all the "downtown" pieces in there, like the bank, post office, toy store, fire station, church etc.

In my dining room I set up the "suburban" area with all the uniques homes, ice rink, basketball game, tree house, etc.

But my favorites is the "wilderness" collection which I set up in my living room. My husband built a display area specifically for it. I have the hunting lodge, ski lodge, fishing cabins, about 8 pieces of the winding river with bridges and animals, the tree farm, log cabin, skate shack etc.

I also have tons of trees and lots of little accessories like garbage cans, light posts, cobblestone walkways, etc.

It is a ton of work, but we got smart a few years ago and made a map of how everything was set up. It helps not to have to try and figure out how everything fits every year.

Oh, I also have the Halloween Village, but not nearly as many pieces, probably only 20 total with the accessories.

 

[goofy's friends]

I just sold my Dicken's village, because I wanted something more whimsical (I had one piece of the North Pole from 3 years ago and decided to go with that. I love it!! So many cute things. I only have 6 buldings and a few accents. I set them on a hutch at Christmas--the kids love them too.

My mom has the Christmas in the city set up year-round above her kitchen cabinets. She has them set to a timer and they light up at night. Beautiful. She gets so many compliments--they go across the whole thing, but you wouldn't have to go all the way around the kitchen.

My sister has the original ones (?) and they are pretty on her entertainment center and she only does them at Christmas. She also has the Bethlehem ones and I envy those. She puts those on her sofa table.

They make great gifts for people to give you too. Especially, those that have a hard time buying for you

 

[Feralpeg]

My sister collects the Dickens Village pieces. She displays them on her baker's rack at Christmas time.

We have a Department 56 store at a mall here. I love going there. They have the coolest things. I especially love the Halloween items. Last year, I bought the big, black tree and little tiny colored lights. I got bulbs that light up and change colors and have bats and such on them. They look great!

I really want this big vampire guy, but I'm afraid he'd get stolen if I put him on my porch and it would creep me out to have him in the house. He looks very real! I almost didn't want to get close enough to look at the price tag for fear he'd move. He stands about 5'5'' tall.

 

[ElizaB39]

I collect Christmas in the City (CIC) and display only at Christmastime, well Thanksgiving weekend through the end of March! I put certain pieces in my kithcen, Bagel store, corner grocer, smaller city pieces - tea seller, haberdashery. Larger pieces go up on my china cabinet (museum, city hall, stock exchange, and other), and in my family room on a media cabinet and across the mantel. I also will set up a display on our newer piano next year. The music store, and other cultural pieces will go on the piano.

I also set up smaller displays in my kids rooms if I have the time.

My mom collects the alpine village and displays only at Christmas. My sister collects New England and North Pole. New England she displays all year, North Pole only at Christmas.

It is fun and my kids love it. DH also loves the way it looks after it is set up. But, it is my thing and he is one of my assistants.

Good Luck!

Wait til the pieces get retired and you will get them for cheap.