Christmas village collection advice?

Question

Ok so im 18 and just moved out of my parents house and am renting an apartment. I do not have a roommate and it has a second bedroom, which i have no other use for so space is no issue, and i have about $5000.00 to spend. i have always liked christmas villages but have never had the room for a large collection in my parents house.

so anyway now i want to start my collection, and the village will consist of things like post office, fire station, all the shops and everything, xmas trees and other miniature figures, and will be up year round. they will all light up and make noise/music when turned on and some have moving parts so those are the things i want to collect.

I would like to have a custom display, like a table and maybe some glass, and lay down the fake snow etc. and would have to hire someone etc. this extra bedroom will be used soley for the display, also i would like to have lights in the display.

so anyway thats the long and short of what im planning and if anyone has any advice on, well anything i just said it will be greatly appreciated, im hoping to spend no more than 4 of my 5 thousand dollars ive saved on the display case and the rest on the buildings and figures.

Answer 1

My partner and I were in home depot yesterday pricing custom cabinets for our display.  You could build  waist-high cabinets along a wall on which to place seasonal displays; underneath in the cabinets you could keep the boxes.  You could also have tall glass cases or bookshelves with glass doors on another wall to display year-round items.  

What line(s) do you collect?  We find Dept 56 is the best quality by far.  Although expensive if bought new, you can find deals all the time on ebay; it's fun to hunt there.  I collect the Halloween village and my partner collects the christmas villages.  The Dept 56 flagship store is here with us in Orlando, but is sadly closing soon; I guess there weren't enough tourists with taste.

We want to add a train to our villages.  If interested, search for Bachmann On30.  They currently have about 3 passenger lines and 3 freight lines.  This is the perfect scale (size) for dept 56 and most villages.  On30 scale is just now being discovered by village hobbyists; the big benefit is that it uses HO scale track which is smaller, more realistic, and can make tighter curves through your village.  If you add a train, make sure your entire countertop on which you place your village is at least 40" deep, or at least the two ends of your countertop are that deep.  Why?  These trains need 3 feet (18" radius) to make a 180 degree turn.

Have fun!  Keep us posted on your progress.  Is there a way to post pics here or send them?   BTW I feel the same as you do about Christmas.

Answer 2

I wish I would have started collecting as early as you are. One suggestion is to keep the boxes of your houses and make sure you put the date on the bottoms of all your pieces. I started collecting houses that represent my kids and friends. As their families grow I add the figurines that are appropriate.I am wanting to do a room like you are talking about as I now have over 30 houses and probably 25 storefronts. It is quite impressive, but it takes over the whole living room to say the least! My son-in-law is going to build me a series of shelves that go around the room with a edge of the front so the houses wont fall off.Let me know if you get any good ideas from people as I ,like you would like some ideas. Good luck collecting!

Answer 3

Very interesting question - by far the industry leader is Department 56. They make multiple series of villages, including the Original Snow Village, Dickens' Village (for more of a Victorian - "A Christmas Carol" feel), North Pole (a whimsical village with kids' themes), Alpine Village, New England Village, and many licensed properties. I am sure you can find one of the villages to collect. They also make the Original Snow Village Halloween series, which my wife collects. There are many excellent creative pieces in that series. If you shop around, you can find many bargains.

If you'd like to find more info about, the blog listed below has 150+ posts dedicated to Department 56 collecting.

You can also look into Lemax, which sells in many of the arts and crafts stores such as Michael's. It's a more affordable collection with a slightly lower pedigree, but people like it.

Many people mix and match pieces from various villages and manufacturers so they can get just the right layout.

During the holidays I create a village with the set from "A Christmas Story". I also populate it with other Department 56 pieces such as the Starbucks store from the Original Snow Village.

We're just about ready to pull our halloween setup (a halloween amusement park) from out of storage. Good luck!

Answer 4

Collect what makes you happy and you can't go wrong ;)))

Answer 5

I say you'd probably have a lot of fun making some of the items for your scene as well as just arranging the ones you buy!  

There are many-many things you can make --from parts of the natural scenery and landscaping itself, to structures and benches/lamp posts/fire plugs/etc, to little figures and accessories for them, and just so much more.  

You can make those things with all kinds of materials too, from things you find around the house, to polymer or other clays and materials you can buy or make.  

There are a lot of books and videos out there for making all those things.  Or you can find lots of free info online from websites and YouTube, etc., or from groups on miniatures, miniature scenes, model railroads and even winter-themed ones, or by checking out library books.

There are even lessons and examples of various things that fall into that category at my website (mostly on polymer clay, but many things could relate to other materials).  If you're interested, check out some of these pages at:

http://glassattic.com (or click on the Table of Contents page there)

Houses, Structures

Miniatures

Christmas-Winter

Fauxs-Many > Rock/Stone, Metal, and other categories

Faux-Turq, Wood

Other Materials (simulating water)

(....click on each of those page names from inside the alphabetical navigation bar on the left)

HTH, and have fun,

Diane B.