A Department 56 obsession

I admit it, I'm obsessed with Department 56. I've always loved the village displays at Yankee Candle in Deerfield, MA. That's where it started. From Christmas in the City, to Dickens' Village, to the original Snow Village and the whimsical North Pole village, they struck a chord with me, reminding me of how I've loved Christmas since I was a child.

When I first met my wife, she wasn't a Christmas nut like I am. She didn't think much of these expensive ceramic buildings either. She did, however, like Halloween, and so that's where it started. We both dove into collecting the original Snow Village Halloween set. We eventually built an amusement park-themed display, featuring the scaredy cat ferris wheel, spinning pumpkins, mummy carousel and more. She had her set, now it was time for me to select the one I was going to collect.

With a love of the movie, "A Christmas Story", when we spotted a set of buildings and accessories from Department 56 @ Sears, there was no choice. I had to have the entire set. My wife actually went and bought me the entire set (two years' worth of releases) over time. It was an exclusive at Sears -- I later found that no dealers sold this set. Soon she was helping to set up the display. I could tell she was starting to enjoy the villages.

Soon after our set was complete, we decided to expand our horizons. Which village to collect? More on that later...

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Tomorrow is Labor Day, Next Up is Halloween!

Hooked on Department 56 has a great article on tips for creating your halloween village . The article features tips and informative links on all of the wonderful and scary options for outfitting your decorative halloween villages, including haunted sounds, spooky lights, and flying witches. The story also features information about The 2008 Haunted Rails Engine & Coal Car, and Rickety Railroad Station, two of Department 56's Halloween village pieces created to mark the ten year anniversary of D56 Halloween. While the train itself is ceramic and non-working, you still get the feel of the haunted railroad. The also is not limited to just D56, as it also mentions Disney Villains from Hawthorne Village. An excerpt from the story: "In 1998, Department 56 introduced the first Halloween village collection. Department 56 Halloween Village features spooky castles, flying witches, skeletons, and gravediggers. Many of the buildings are lighted with fiber optic light effects, that fli...

Lego in the news this week

Olin administrator builds Lego Needham Town Hall It turns out that two Town Halls were built in Needham this year. One was the brick-and-mortar building sitting in Needham Center, which underwent renovations and additions and will be officially unveiled at a Needham300 event on Nov. 5. The other Town Hall is made of Legos. Nick Tatar, Assistant Dean of Student Life at Olin College, built this second Town Hall at Olin over the course of three months, starting in January. Working with Olin professor Brad Minch and seven children and Olin students, Tatar built the Town Hall out of fifteen thousand Lego pieces, sometimes working 10 to 15 hours a week on the project. On Nov. 5, Tatar will break the Town Hall into chunks and transport it to the other Town Hall. At noon, he will reassemble it, then step back and let people admire his handiwork. Tatar said that he decided to build this Lego Town Hall for kids to enjoy during the Nov. 5 Needham 300 gala. “I wanted to see if we c...

Celebrate the arrival of the February/March Village D-Lights!

Fresh in my mailbox was a brand new issue of Village D-Lights , a magazine designed for village collecting enthusiasts, featuring great articles, display tips product information and much more. This edition's cover features the "Canton Tea Trading", a new piece for 2008 for Dickens' Village. Here is what you'll find in this (February/March) issue: * The cover story describes some of the 2008 introductions for Christmas in the City, Alpine Village and Dickens' Village. * A great feature on Randy Miller, president of the NCC . * A spectacular ad by D56 for the "American Diner". * Ms. LitTown writes about the new Department 56 showroom, which is being prepped for the 2008 convention. * A letter from Mrs. Dickens * Brandon Taylor's take on variations of some of the pieces * A Valentine's Day feature on themed pieces for that special day There's also many regular sections of the magazine: reader submissions, letter from the editor, trivia, di...

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