Tell me about collectible Christmas villages

[PrincessV]

Okay, I've been wanting to start a village collection for Christmas ever since I worked in a shop selling the Colonial Village line. Sadly, Colonial Village is no more, and its buildings were a little big for my smallish home anyway.

I'm familiar with the Dept. 56 villages - Snow, New England, Christmas in the City, etc. Are there other collections out there I should consider? What are your favorites?

TIA!

 

[ConcKahuna]

I collect the ones at Wal-Mart. I cant remember the name of them right now, but they come out with new ones every year. They're fairly small, inexpensive, and still nice.

 

[missypie]

It's all a matter of personal preference. But once you have settled on one, please check for pieces on eBay. About 25 years ago, my mom started collecting the Department 56 Dickens Village pieces. They took up too much room in her closet, so she gave them to me. I would not normally collect that type of thing, but it does look so pretty set up.

Anyway, I have been able to add several buildings for around $12 each (plus shipping) from eBay. The original price for the buildings - 25 years ago - was in the $30-$40 range. I think the buildings have not appreciated the way some collectors thought they would.

A local gift shop in my town sells a lot of new Dept. 56. Sometimes they'll sell retired pieces at a premium. I've bought pieces on eBay for $12-$16 that they are selling for $80.

 

[Dalton5]

I love my Dept.56 Snow Village. It has grown so much over the last couple of years that we now have built a large table that we set up in the family room with the whole village, snow, streets the whole shbang! We have such fun with it.

The E-bay suggestion is a great one. I have bought many pieces from there at great prices.

The biggest part of collecting is having fun with it. Enjoy!

 

[java]

We have Christmas in the City through no fault of my own. For years my MIL decided that we should have one and started us on the collection. I have grown to love it. Although, at this point, it is just too darn huge! I do have favorites though- like the chinese restaurant and the stock exchange and yankee stadium.

 

[ChristmasElf]

I love all of the Dept 56 Villages and have many of them. In fact, I hardly ever set them up too much anymore as the collection has gotten so large that it gets so time consuming just putting them out.
I think of all the money I spent and wonder what the heck I was thinking!
They are beautiful when lit up though. I always bought the houses that "spoke" to me! My DH always buys me flowers just because, so I had to have the florist.
I used to bowl a lot so I bought the bowling alley. I have all the North Pole houses with Santas workshop and the toy shop etc. because I love Christmas. I have 5 of the Disney Dept 56 houses as well.(Disney doesn't work with them anymore so maybe they will be worth something some day)

Once in a while you can get a good deal on them, but not often. Just try not to buy any off of ebay. I have been stupid enough to have burned TWICE by sellers of Dept 56 on eBay.

 

[ChristmasElf]

I love my Dept.56 Snow Village. It has grown so much over the last couple of years that we now have built a large table that we set up in the family room with the whole village, snow, streets the whole shbang! We have such fun with it.

The E-bay suggestion is a great one. I have bought many pieces from there at great prices.

The biggest part of collecting is having fun with it. Enjoy!

I posted before I saw this post. Glad to see that you had good luck on EBay. I was burned once for $68 and another for $59. I should have known better on the first one as he had low feedback. But the second had a ton of good feedback so I mistakenly thought I was safe.

Sorry, but I will never do ebay again.

 

[castleview]

I have the North Pole Collection. I haven't bought any in a few years because I'm already at 50 something pieces. When these villages first came out, a new piece would come out annually. Now, there's at least five new pieces every year. Spacewise and financially, I just can't keep up. Plus, this one has gotten a little too commercial also - every year there's a new trademark piece (M&Ms, Acme, etc. - DDs did love Barbie's Boutique so much that I bought it).

It is an awesome thing to have but it is a lot of work. It takes at least a full day to set up, but we love it.

 

[missypie]

I posted before I saw this post. Glad to see that you had good luck on EBay. I was burned once for $68 and another for $59. I should have known better on the first one as he had low feedback. But the second had a ton of good feedback so I mistakenly thought I was safe.

Sorry, but I will never do ebay again.

I've had such good luck with Dept. 56 on eBay. (Of course, I won't pay over $20 for anything.) What was wrong? Not really Dept. 56? Broken or damaged?

 

[juligrl]

I have been collecting the Lemax village pieces for about 15 years now. I love their pieces! I want to say Michaels usually carries them around Christmas time. I think last year Lowes had some Lemax pieces too. Personally, I started my collection by buying day after Christmas at a local Pool City store. Lemax also makes the Spookytown pieces for Halloween. I don't collect those, but they do have some cool pieces.

 

[ChristmasElf]

I've had such good luck with Dept. 56 on eBay. (Of course, I won't pay over $20 for anything.) What was wrong? Not really Dept. 56? Broken or damaged?

On the first one, I never received it and when I sent an email to the seller, he couldn't provide ANY proof that he even mailed it out. You would have thought I could have gotten my money back when I reported him, but No.
Instead this guy sends me a threatening email telling me to NEVER put negative feedback on him and that HE was going to leave negative feedback for me!! I sent him 2 or 3 other emails saying just please send the merchandise, but he never did. By that time, the Holidays were there and we were going out of town and when I got back, too much time had passed by and I ended up just letting the matter drop.

The second time I received the wrong merchandise. The seller sent me a Longaberger basket by mistake. Okay, I will send back the basket if they would then send me the Dept 56 house that I had already paid for. 2 weeks went by and the Seller responds to my like 12th email that they were trying to figure out what happened to the piece and if they had accidently sent it to the wrong person, yadda yadda yadda. I then asked what about the person that bought the basket that I had mistakenly received? No response.
She kept saying she would refund my money if she couldn't find it within 10 days. And then she asks if I wouldn't mind shipping the basket back to her so she could get that out to the right buyer.
Like an idiot, I go ahead and send it back to her and a week later get some sob story that her uncle had died and that her DH was out of work because he went to the funeral without telling his boss, and now she didn't even know how she was going to pay her bills!

I will never be so trusting again. It's funny, because I deal with the public so much and I try to be nice and at the same time I am known for not being a pushover, yet I was shafted two seperate times before I learned to just go shopping at a store!!!!!

 

[missypie]

That is really too bad. We have bought a lot on ebay (including high ticket furnture) and have never had an item that didn't show up. There was one that took about 2 months. I was days away from contacting her local district attorneys office to report a theft...but she finally sent the item along with a sob story of some kind. (If you are having all kinds of personal/health problems, why do you even list on eBay?) I admit that the whole process requires trust, but we haven't been burned.

 

[DVCLiz]

I have the Department 56 North Pole set. I have all of the original ones that spell out North Pole, and several of the others - Santa's workshop, the reindeer barn, the elves bunkhouse, etc. I stopped collecting them when I ran out of table space, but I like to add the occasional small piece - I bought some new ones last year.

I don't get them out every Christmas, but when I do I really like having them and might leave them out for the month of January too!

 

[Mike.Wazowski]

I have and LOVE the Dept 56 disney line...
my favorite is the Fab 5 Swing

 

[ead79]

I have three different Dept. 56 villages.

The one I still collect is Christmas in the City. I love adding pieces to my collection each year. Typically DH gets them off eBay for my gifts.

My aunt gave me her Dickens Village pieces, so I have some of those too. I haven't really added to that collection though since I enjoy adding to my Christmas in the City village more.

I also have the now retired Dept. 56 Disney Parks village. I lack two pieces (the two most expensive, hardest to get buildings), and I like having it a lot. I wish Disney would partner with Dept. 56 again.

 

[PrincessV]

Thanks for all the great replies! I think my next step will be a trip to our local Christmas "wonderland" store to see some of the Dept. 56 collections first-hand.

Here's another question: have any of you set your villages up with a train? I have a few chintzy buildings I've tried to set up with our train and the problem I have is with the building cords. The cords are so thick, it's hard to get the train tracks to lie flat when I run a cord under them. Any tricks for this?

 

[Paull117]

We have the disneyland toontown christmas village, and working on WDW mainstreet usa one.

Paul