Outdoor Decorations-1. The Village
I usually started putting up my outdoor Christmas decorations about the week after Halloween. The weather was usually comparatively warm and it usually took nearly three weeks to complete the task. For me, the first order of decoration was to put up my Christmas village. A task that evolved over the years.
The first Christmas village that I bought was just a little, lighted, white plastic collection of about six Alpine houses and a church. The houses were about 3”x3”x3” and the church was about 3”x4”x4”. It was a small set – and cheap, but I was quite fond of it. It graced our homes at WSU, Hillsboro, and Ashland for several years. When we moved to the house on the Hill, Doc put up a hanging platform on our front deck and the little village spent the Christmas seasons on the deck for several more years. I have looked for photos of this little plastic village, but there appear to be none. Sad.
Then I found the lovely David Winter Dickens Christmas houses, and every year for five years I purchased a dated house, Old Joe’s Beetling House, Belle’s Cottage, Fred’s home, The Ebeneezer Scrooge Family Home, and Mistger Fizzywig’s Emporium. For a few years, I had a combination of the little white plastic village houses, David Winter Houses, and Dept. 56 Dickens Christmas houses, which resided on a white “snow” covered background on the hanging platform. Doc also cut out a mountain-scape for a background of my village. More lights went up and the village was starting to take shape.
About that time, I found that Dept. 56 had a snowy river set – straight pieces and curved piece – so that I could make a winding river flow through my Christmas village. Ponds, bridges and water falls were added, along with an ever growing number of little Dickens people that strolled the “brick” pathways. I made hills for some of the houses, all draped with a “snowy” backdrop. I finally had enough Dept. 56 houses, and other houses so that I moved my David Winters houses inside for interior decoration, but the little white plastic village usually was situated up along the mountain-scape, as though it were a far away alpine village. That little village took its place for nearly thirty years in my decorating scheme.
In about 1998, I had knee surgery so my Sis put up the village for me. She groused about how much time it took to put up the village.
My mother wryly commented, “Well, Joannie likes putting up the village as much as she likes have the village up – maybe more.”
That was certainly a true statement. I have always loved little villages and house, starting with the hand-crafted houses made of cardboard from laundered shirts. David Zuckerman made those for me when I was about four years old. So, I did indeed love putting the Christmas village up every year, and family and friends also seemed to like it as well.
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© Joan G. Hill, Roots'n'Leaves Publications
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