Father-Husband-Marketer-Geek

From the Dickens' Village series and "A Christmas Carol" series (what's up with the "minis", which are basically ornaments?), I select the "Joseph Edward Tea Shoppe": From the "New England Village" series, I thought the "Nan's Cape Cod Creamery" was very familiar and fun...reminded me of the many creameries in New England: From the whimsical "North Pole Series", my favorite new building is the "Santa's Hot Cocoa Cafe", a worthy throwback:

From the "A Place to Remember" Series, I really like "Christmas in Paris, Large": From the "Alpine Village Series", my son would absolutely love the "Alpine Clock Tower" (One of his current obsessions are clocks of any size or shape): From the "Christmas in the City" series, it seemed to be a dissapointing lot this year, but I did find "Maxwell's Blues Hall" to have an intriguing color scheme: Related articles Some blogs need to be reinvented... (department56.blogspot.com) Introduction to a British Christmas (English Christmas, Scottish Christmas, Welsh Christmas) [Zahir shamsery] (ecademy.com)

From their "About Us" page: Since 1993, Scenic Express has taken great pride in bringing the latest, most innovative scenery products to the modeling industry the world has ever known! Scenic Express credits its many years of success to not only selling “top-of-the-line” landscaping scenery supplies, but also attributes much success to its well-known reputation for prompt processing and shipping of orders (most orders are shipped the same day!). Further, Scenic Express continues to add annually the most modern, up-to-date, exciting, new scenery products to its inventory making every new catalog released the most sought after publication. The NEW ‘SuperTurf’ and MiniNatur Crop Rows and Vegetables are just two of the hottest items selling to date. Scenic Express is also a proud sponsor of the O-Gauge Railroading Forum and delights in participating in children’s programs and knowledgeable workshops which promote enthusiasm and continued interest for the model railroading hobb

Recently on the Yahoo! Department 56 discussion group , they asked about some of the buildings from "A Christmas Story": The Joke Shop, The Firehouse, The Police Station, Pulaski's Candy Shop, The Optometry, etc. -- where did they appear in the movie or book? I reached out to the current owner of the " A Christmas Story " licensing rights, Brian Jones, who offered some insight: "The movie being 94 minutes long not all aspects of Ralphie's home town were shown. So Dept 56 took some creative license with buildings: the police and firemen that helped flick would have had to come from their stations. Ralphie directly mentions Pulaski's Candy store as the place Flick saw some grizzly bears. And to get the fake teeth for the joke on Miss Shield they might have bought them at the joke shop along with the rose that squirts that Flick or Schwartz was going to get their old man. Pulaski's did actually appear in the sequel..." The sequel was actual

Image via Wikipedia Yes, Sodor is the fictional island where the Thomas & Friends steam engine rails run their specials, shunting cars and hauling freight. Can you believe there is an entire mythology and history to Sodor? From  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodor_(fictional_island) : "The need for consistency in the locations for The Railway Series necessitated the creation of a suitable location. The Rev. Awdry required a setting for his books that would be within Great Britain,Rule[›] but would be sufficiently isolated from the rest of British Railways to allow him to do as he wished with the location. Inspiration came on a visit to the Diocese of Sodor and Man[1] in 1950. Awdry noted that while there was an Isle of Man, there was no similar Island of Sodor. A large island would meet the criteria he required, giving him the isolation from changes to the British railway system while giving him somewhere that people could believe in. Between them, Awdry and his brother George

By this year, I mean 2010....way back on November 21, to be exact.\ Our annual trip to the Yankee Candle flagship store is always one of our most fun outings of the year. For 10+ years running, my friends and I have trekked our families up north on the Saturday before Thanksgiving. We typically stop in Northampton for Starbucks and some shopping. This year was the fourth with kids, and it takes on an entirely new meaning. To see the kids' faces as each new room at the Candle is unveiled is precious. Especially the D56 display room. What a good way to introduce villages to our kids. The flagship store has gotten very commercial in other areas, from the lame imitation Build-A-Bear workshop to the home & garden shop...but I swear, the Yankee Candle Santa is the most authentic...I mean he's the real deal. We always end the trip at Bub's BBQ, which looks like a dive, but offers up a magical chicken noodle soup, great barbecue, and some very good fountain soda with the right

This was a post I had begun late Thanksgiving evening, after the Tryptophan had kicked in, after the football had been played out. Often before the bird is even sliced, people are charting out a course of action for tackling Black Friday doorbuster deals and Cyber Monday online steals. While half of the family is toiling in the kitchen cleaning up the pots and pans used in preparing the Turkey and all of its' accessories, the other half of the family may have made its' way outside to begin hoisting lights up on the house. We made it a point to begin placing our village pieces out early, to really enjoy them for the entire Thanksgiving to Christmas holiday. Little did we now our boy would be sick for 10 days with some cough and stomach bug. Needless to say, our plan would come off course for a few days. We ended up getting the tree decorated by the week before Christmas (we displayed a half-decorated tree for our Tree Trimming party on Dec. 5th!) and we created two small vignett

...and this is one of them. The Department 56 blog was created when I was at the height of my affection for the product line. I was collecting the Original Snow Village, the Original Snow Village Halloween, Dickens' Village and the "A Christmas Story" line from Sears. A few years ago D56 was purchased by Enesco. Dealers were complaining about a change in the way they were being treated. Financial struggles forced us to purge our pieces, except for Halloween and A Christmas Story. I lost interest, barely paying attention to new product introductions. I saw dealers closing up shop. Two of my favorite dealers stopped carrying new merchandise. I also happened to become a father -- a blessing which I gladly reallocated time for. Less blogging, more diapers. Now I find myself interested in some other collectibles: Lego, Thomas & Friends, Comic Book stuff, things which he and I share a passion for now. My son is now 2 years and 8 months, and as train tracks lay across my hou

I ran across a great article recently which spoke to Lego's customer service secrets. Here's an excerpt: "I visited a LEGO store opening in Austin, TX last weekend. It was a family affair, as my mom, wife, two sons, brother, sister-in-law, and their three sons were all in attendance. The line to enter the store stretched for several hundred feet and some people waited up to an hour to get in. Whatever marketing they had done for the grand opening worked famously. As part of the promotion, LEGO also set up an area on the floor below to build an 8-foot tall Buzz Lightyear model. They assembled an area where kids could build blocks of Legos that would later be used in the construction of the Toy Story character. Once the blocks had been put together, the kids could turn in their work to receive a certificate of achievement for helping. This, of course, was a big deal to the kids. You couldn’t leave without getting a certificate. My 2-1/2 year old son made me acutely aware of

There have been some amazing things built with Legos, and I'm not talking exclusively about the in-store displays like the fireman at Toys R Us, although he's pretty cool as well. Here are some of the other designs which have gained notoriety lately. Super Lego Stadium: The Android game "Angry Birds" has been recreated in legos: The invincible Iron Man: Pure artistic intrepretation: Intricate LEGO cities: Historical memorials: Of course, there are also many Christmas-themed Lego designs out there: Related articles These LEGO Brick Birds Are Angrier Than Ever [DIY] (kotaku.com) Lego.com: Up to 70% Off (forthemommas.com) 10 Facts About Lego Toys (quazen.com) Brickify turns your images into LEGO plans ()