Father-Husband-Marketer-Geek

It's the last day of July, and though my wife would not want me to wish away the summer, I'll admit the fall is my favorite time of the year. The foliage, crisp evenings, the start of football season, inching closer to the holidays...I can't wait. Even though she loves summer, she's starting to feel the excitement of the fall as well - all of the fun event we attend: The Big E in West Springfield, Massachusetts, the Yankee Candle factory trip, the Turkey Bowl (every year about 40 friends gather to share food and play touch football - only one injury in six years!). I'll have to blog about the Christmas Prelude in Kennebunkport, ME , an amazing event. All of this being said, my wife's favorite holiday is Halloween, and we began searching for decorations for our pumpkin carving party. Jo-Anns had a few decorations out, and Michael's was beginning to set up their Halloween crafts. We even went to Target but they still were in "Back to School" mod...

This past Saturday I was browsing a flea market while my wife was getting her hair done. There was a little Christmas shop inside the flea market. Of course, I asked the proprietor if she had any village buildings by Department56. She said yes, and showed me three older pieces from Dickens' Village. There was "M Fezziwig Warehouse", "The Flat of Ebenezer Scrooge" and "Old Curiosity Shop". I don't collect Dickens, but I know th at is what I wanted to give my brother and sister-in-law for Christmas. Perfect. I asked her if the lighting worked, and she tested each, and showed me all sides of each building. They were perfect. I was so excited. It was a very good deal, right? It's funny, because before I chose Snow Village, I was going to choose Dickens for my christmas village, basically because I've always loved the movies, including every single remake. These pieces may end up at my office - which I have dubbed "The island of misfit piec...

The Original Yahoo! Department 56 Collectors Group has come up with a brilliant idea for a new series - one that could be appropriate for a Halloween decor, in my opinion. Actually, several people seemed to echo the idea and say that they've sent suggestions to Department 56 . The idea? None other than the world of Harry Potter . The idea is perfect and the number of buildings and accessories which could be released are endless. The idea began when a member of the group posted this question: "Would you be interested in a Dept 56 Harry Potter village?" . Comments flowed back and forth the entire day yesterday: "I always thought the Harry Potter theme would make a great lighted village - can you imagine a Hogwarts Castle or an entire Diagon Alley with all the shops from the book?" "Dept 56 already has a couple of Harry Potter licenses - they made secret boxes and charms and I think a couple of ornaments. That's why I thought it would have been a natural ...

The following shops were recommended to me and I've added them to the Google map of D56 Shops : Grapevine Gifts, Lake Jackson, TX "It's not exactly in the Midwest, but it's my local shop (whom I adore!). The owners are Ronnie Martin and Jeff Rae. Jeff is the one mainly that deals with Dept. 56. They are a gold key dealer and are SUPER nice and knowledgeable. All retired pieces are routinely 20% off. They are about to build a new, 8,000 square foot store. Not too bad for small-town South Texas!" North Pole Village, Oklahoma City, Ok City Lights, San Diego, CA "These are a couple of shops you may want to consider for this site. North Pole Village is happy to ship. City Lights ships free, not sure if there is a minimum. And they have some really neat displays all year round." States without recommended shops: Wyoming Utah Colorado New Mexico Arizona Nevada South Dakota North Dakota Nebraska Iowa Florida Georgia Alabama South Carolina

1) Will Sears be coming out with a third release of buildings and accessories for their exclusive "A Christmas Story" series? "Yes, there will be new introductions for this series in 2007. If you go to the Department 56 website and click on Collecting and scroll down you will see Product Exclusive s. The new 2007 pieces have not been added yet, but they will be up there soon." - This is extremely exciting news! 2) What is the verdict on the controversial Department 56 brand stamp issue? "What controversy? " - I then replied, informing her that many collectors were adamantly opposed to the idea. 3) What will be the next baseball parks released for Christmas In The City? "We have no information to share on any new additions to this series. The next introductions will be in December, 2007." - I should have asked if there will be a new Yankee Stadium to coincide with the construction of their brand new ballpark. 4) What happened to the official Depar...

1) Will Sears be coming out with a third release of buildings and accessories for their exclusive "A Christmas Story" series? 2) What is the verdict on the controversial Department 56 brand stamp issue? 3) What will be the next baseball parks released for Christmas In The City? 4) What happened to the official Department56 magazine? 5) When will Department 56 update their store locator? Please feel free to add more questions via the "comments" tool. I'm going to be submitting these to the customer service department and will publish the answers when I get them.

10) Prancer What starts out as a syrupy, whiney melodrama, as dark as "The House Without a Christmas Tree", with similar themes, turns out to be very Grinchlike as townspeople rally to save the spirit of Christmas. A predictable storyline won't stop children from loving this movie. It might even make some people well up in the old eye sockets... 3 out of 4 elves recommend this christmas movie! 9) Santa Claus: The Movie This movie was so hyped up. I was a freshman in college, and with a buddy of mine who was also a christmas freak, and we drove 40 miles to see the premiere. It was supposed to be "Santa Claus" as if done by George Lucas - special effects abound, and it was, visually, pretty darn impressive. What I didn't like was Dudley Moore - never a personal favorite. Like "The Grinch", perhaps the hype and the expectations were not met. 3 out of 4 elves recommend this movie! 8) The Santa Clause It's hard to imagine Tim Allen as Santa. After a...

This is according to search results on Google for the past month: 5. Department 56 Christmas in the City From the corporate website : "Representing some of the nation's diverse and most striking cityscapes, the unusual shops do a brisk business, restaurants and ballparks are crowded with patrons and street vendors cater to a steady stream of customers." 4. Department 56 Bethlehem The "Little Town of Bethlehem" Series honors the Christmas miracle. The series includes pieces such as "Birth of Christ Nativity Set", "The Church of the Holy Sepulcher", "Nativity" and the "Potter's Shop". 3. Department 56 Alpine Village I admit I don;t know much about this series, but the corporate site says "The intricately detailed lighted buildings and accessories of this series are as unique and diverse as the towns and hamlets in the Alpine and bavarian regions they represent." I'll have to research more. 2. Animated Depar...

The Google Map of Recommended Department 56 Shops is very heavy on the East Coast, and the west coast has a few shops as well. Not much for the midwest - Kansas, Iowa, etc. All of the shops currently on the map are recommended by users - I won't add these listed below unless they come recommended. According to the Department56 corporate store locator, there are some matches. Now we just need some buyers to comment with a recommendation: - Cards N Such, Topeka, Ks - Stitch On Needlework Shop, Lawrence, Ks - Ball Brothers, Atchison, Ks - David's Briar Shoppe, Des Moines, Ia - Dillard's, Inc., Des Moines, Ia - Denny's Gift Den, Urbandale, Ia - Gene Ann's Hallmark, Boone, Ia - Younkers, Marshalltown, Ia

Bronner's is legendary. They even have their own D56 building, as depicted in this image. If you click on the picture, you can view the descriptive page on the corporate D56 site. I was looking for some additional stores from the midwest to add to the Google Map of Recommended Department 56 shops . It was suggested that I include Bronner's. A quote from a member of the d56 yahoo group : "They say they are the largest Christmas store in the world....It is a family run business, and they are the sweetest people. I've been going there for over 20 years, and every time I go ALL of the salespeople are full of Christmas cheer...no matter what time of year it is! It is one of the happiest places to shop. If you go, go during the weekdays, when it is a bit less crowded. Also, they don't get their "new" Christmas stock until around July. So, between July and Christmas is the best shopping time" I had been waiting for an article on their history from their ma...

I had no idea that when I posted a message to the Yahoo! D56 Group about my cat Reggie being like Godzilla, roaming through our displays, that it would spawn 20+ messages back with similar stories, and better yet, many suggested ideas for preventing the inevitable "accessory loss" due to nibbling kitty. Here are some of the ideas from the group: "Having to reposition and pick up everything they have knocked down each morning is bad enough (I hot glue down almost everything thinks to them) but it is the frigging snow covered paw prints all over the house the next day that drive me to the brink of insanity. I have tried balloons (one of my dogs will not even go in the room if there is a blown up balloon anywhere in the room) BUT the cats could care less." "I found a product called "shake away" under animal repellents that is 100% organic that might work." (note: it was reported that there was an odor issue with this) Wasn't something said abo...

* Series designed for a younger demographic, so people can start developing an affection for the brand when they start earning the disposable income required to sustain the hobby. An example of this would be, perhaps, a Lego village? I know this sounds like blasphemy to most, but why not? It would be fun. * D56 could appeal to the craft set by releasing a series of unfinished buildings - paint your own. This could gain D56 into stores like Michael's and Jo-Ann Fabrics . * Combining the youth appeal and the craft element, D56 could go the next step and sell mold-making kits to bake your own village building. Anyone remember Shaker Makers or Shrinky Dinks * The poll on the sidebar illustrates several of the new building ideas we've gathered here. Only 9 people have voted so far, resulting in a tie between the Newport Mansions and the Dr. Seuss house. The poll will stay up until New Year's Eve.

They were called Christmas "specials" because they always were...special. Whether it was the stop-motion animation as in "Rudolph", the familiar music of "Charlie Brown" or the hilarity of the Burgermeister, everyone 35 years and up surely remembers these television shows as events that we used to watch every year. #1: A Charlie Brown Christmas Religion! Humor! Greed! Music! A greek play? No, just the pinnacle of Christmas animation and of Charles Schulz' work. The soundtrack alone is worthy of much praise. Who hasn't has a "Charlie Brown" tree at one point or another? Who hasn't questioned the commercialism of christmas once in their lives? Most importantly, the film answers, "What is the true meaning of Christmas?" #2: Rudolph the red-nosed Reindeer This is one of those classic claymation specials that our kids will end up watching every year and then pass on down to their kids. Now that it's available on DVD, though, ...

My wife's Original Snow Village Halloween collection has extended beyond the amusement park theme , and now we must start laying out our second vignette. We don't have a name for it yet, but here are the pieces we are going to include in it: - Jack's Pumpkin Carving Studio Set - Dead End Motel - Black Cat Diner - Halloween Dance - Castle Blackstone We also have the Water Tower, which is currently in the Amusement Park theme vignette , but we may move it to this as yet unnamed layout.

Yes, there are other makers of fine porcelain villages - this blog happens to focus on Department 56, but that doesn't mean we won't feature competitors or complimentary products...in fact, we'll make it a more regular frequency of posting to discuss the competitive market. One comment posted recently made me aware of a European village manufacturer called Luville . I was delighted to see the finely detailed village buildings and accessories they produce across the pond. This image is a village scene from their website. I wonder if there are village manufacturers who create Japanese, Russian or Italian villages?

* A good question was posted on the Yahoo! Group yesterday - how do you prevent your cats from playing with your village ("playing" is a much more positive word than "destroying"!)? Other than encasing your display in glass, I am not sure. I related to this post as our youngest cat Reggie likes to roam our displays as if he is Godzilla, occasionally nibbling on a tree and once when he was hungry we think he bit Santa. * Speaking of Godzilla, I was wondering if Dept 56 or any other company built buildings for other countries? Are there Japanese villages? Norway villages? This too would be interesting to find out. * I'm very pleased with the reach of this blog as it's only a month or so old and we have 23 email subscribers (you can sign up to the right -------->) and are averaging about that much in visits to the blog each day from unique visitors. Even more impressive are the searches from Google that are coming in: "d56 survey" "department ...

While we eagerly await the arrival of the " Howl Radio " limited edition piece (only 9000) from the Original Snow Village Halloween set, we are very excited about the " Black Cat Diner ", a 2002 piece. The piece has a good sized black cat perched on top of the diner, and it looks just like Azrael, our own black kitty. The diner is designed with fun little details like the "Skeleton Crew", which are the workers inside the diner, one being a skeleton with a chef's cap and the other a feline helper. The light bulbs circling the diner's roofing are flashing pumpkins. The other animation is the cat's glowing eyes. The diner comes in a " Halloween Gift Set " that includes an autumn tree, a bag of leaves, and an accessory called "You Go First!" depicting three trick or treaters. The diner also has an outside eatery, where a weary waitress takes orders. Could she be a witch? Quite possibly....

I fetched this script from Yahoo! Pipes and created a Google Gadget for it. You can refresh this link every day and see the updated list of Department 56 Sales on the MSN shopping site: Feedburner email delivery of this feed might not display the MSN script properly, in that case, click here to view the actual D56 Sales blog . If you click on the title of this gadget, you can go to the full page of MSN deals. I've also experimented with a new Google Page showing ALL Department 56 sales on Ebay . Formatting isn't great yet, but check it out. I added two new shops to the Google Map of Recommended Department 56 Shops . Lastly, don't forget to vote on your favorite ideas for new buildings in the poll located on the sidebar to the right! ------------->

Yesterday I received an email from Department 56 . They sent out an email to the subscriber base asking us to take a survey (if you didn't get the survey and are not on their subscriber list, click here to sign up ). They are considering adding a brand stamp to pieces to help differentiate them from competition. In the survey they show you a picture of the proposed stamping. It looks gold. I don't mind the stamp itself, but I think it would be better if it blended into the natural color of the piece. When I asked the Original Department56 Collectors Group on Yahoo! , the responses were clearly opposing the stamp . Here are a few excerpts: "I think the brand stamp will ruin the looks of the buildings" "I'd have to consider if I wanted to spend money on the damn thing if it has one, plus how much work would it take to cover the ugly sucker up in a display! I think it would actually take away from the overall attractiveness of the buildings, even if they said th...

He'll be a mean one, again, for sure. Did you hear that Robert Zemeckis has tapped Jim Carrey to play Ebenezer Scrooge AND the ghost of christmas past, present and future in a new adaptation of Charles Dickens' " A Christmas Carol " (slated for a 2008 release)? Now Mr. Carrey will have played both the Grinch and Scrooge. According to IMDB, " A Christmas Carol " has been done 26 times. I really like the 1999 version with Patrick Stewart , and of course the 1951 version with Alastair Sim . I used to be an advocate of Mr. Carrey taking on the role of George Bailey in a remake of " It's a Wonderful Life " alongside Meg Ryan as his romantic opposite, but now I am feeling a little Jim Carrey overload, especially with him playing all four roles in the new film.

The Wooden Duck is a family owned fine gift, collectible and women’s apparel retail shop that was established in the historic town of Skippack, Pennsylvania in 1973, located in the town of Skippack Village (approximately 35 miles Northwest of Philadelphia) at 4033 Skippack Pike (PA Route 73) at the Homestead Shopping complex. The Wooden Duck offers a diverse line of merchandise, from collectibles (Department 56 and Byers’ Choice Carolers to name a few). Check out their Department 56 2006 and prior Snow Village price list

My wife has embraced the original snow village halloween series, creatively designing an amusement park of certain animated pieces. Here is a gallery of our amusement park pieces: Here are the pieces we'd like to add this year to the amusement park: We also have another Halloween vignette, which I'll save for another post.

Angelic Dreamz of Canadaigua, NY, features the complete line of Krinkles by Patience Brewster. "Our store was founding in 1993, we originated in Miami Beach, Fl and after 20 years of Florida living, and putting up with endless hurricanes we decided to move away from the coast and scoured the country for an ideal place. We settled on Canandaigua, New York. Settling into a 130 year old historic Firehouse , in the beautiful Finger Lakes regions of western NY, it was our ideal location. Canandaigua is a historic lake town on the edge of Lake Canandaigua. Our store features the entire line of both Krinkles and D56 Villages." Last year Patience Brewster made a personal appearance at our store . She will be making another appearance and signing this year at our Christkindl Market at the Granger Homestead here in Canandaigua, where we will be presenting Patience as well as hundreds of Krinkles items during the event. She will be present on Nov. 10th from 2-4pm to autograph ornam...

The Original Department 56 Collectors Group on Yahoo! Groups replied with a lot of really great ideas. Here are a few they came up with: "Since I am mainly a collector of the New England Village, I offer this as my suggestions of what I would like D56 to consider: L.L.Bean Outlet Daniel Webster Inn Paul Revere's House Lonfellow's Wayside Inn Plymouth Rock with Portico Fanuel Hall House of Seven Gables a shoe factory P.T. Barnums Museum A granite quarry or cutting house The Old Man of the Mountain (so we can remember what it once was) Ben & Jerrys Ice cream factory Quincy Market & any of the mansions in Newport RI There is a Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast in Fall River MA but not sure if that shouldn't be a candidate for Halloween Village. Also why not a gym for Christmas In The City and a shoe store to go with the shoe factory." "I've always wanted to have a series of college and universities. I know another company does this a...

I recently struck up a message thread about new ideas for D56 with the good people over at the Original Department 56 Yahoo! Group, asking them: "I was thinking about this today, especially with the 4th of July coming, as I usually find myself drinking margaritas with friends on the deck of the National Hotel on Block Island. What a great idea for a New EnglandVillage sub-series. Several of the island's hotels: the National, the Harborside, the Surf Hotel, would be perfect buildings for a set. You could even have the ferry landing and the Block Island Ferry accessory. Around noon on Wednesday, there will be 100s of people standing on the deck of the National Hotel as the annual 4th of July parade goes down the main street, in front of the ferry landing. What other ideas do you have for buildings/pieces/sets that D56 could make?" Several people from the group stepped up with the following responses and some wonderful ideas. Victorian Resort Village: "I really like my...

Who would have known that the piece I was looking for would be discovered in the home state of the rival Red Sox? My wife and I visited Graziano Gardens in East Longmeadow, MA, today. This was one of the recommended shops from last week's posts (see the Map of Recommended Shops below). It really was a nice garden store. There were four or five decent village scapes in the Christmas Shop, but you could tell it wasn't really ready for a holiday visit - much of it was in an "organizational" phase. Still, the store had some great scenes - especially Dickens' Village. My wife actually found a great deal on hanging plants there - buy one, get one for half off. We raced home and set up Yankee Stadium on our Kitchen Bar, temporarily (it will be heading to my office, where I can enjoy it during the workday). It has a bulb which shines through all the little windows of the ballpark. It's still hard to believe each piece is hand-cut. They must have lots of little elves...

You can click here to visit the fully functional store itself. Here's a preview:

We're going to begin building our first landscape. I know there are a lot of villagers out there with experience, so don't be shy with advice, tips, links, etc. We are a bit space-challenged in regards to the size and shape of the display, but we will make do with what we can. Maybe three of four vignettes instead of one big display. Here's what we've got for pieces: Starbucks Building Campbells Soup and the corresponding accessory Gus's Drive In Dinah's Drive In Pillsbury Bake Shop Long Haul Truck Stop News Gazette Comic Book Shop Red Barn Christmas Shop Playhouse Train Station Stardust Movie Theater Roadside Signs Mighty Fine BBQ and accessory Sharky's Pool Hall Budweiser Brewery and Clydesdales Also including the "A Christmas Story" set from Sears: Ralphie's House Bumpus's House School House Chinese Restaurant Town Hall Fire House Higbee's Department Store Town Xmas Tree