Featured D56 site: Matts Department 56 Extravaganza

Matt Lake at age 14 and a high school freshman began this site. Matt, now out of college and fully employed, is an avid Dickens Village collector. Pictured at left is his 2003 Dickens' Village display.

An excerpt from his home page:
"My family and I have been collecting Dept. 56 Collectibles since Christmas of 1994. My collection has grown a GREAT deal since 1994. We currently collect the Dickens Village, Disney Parks Village, Christmas In The City, Snowbunnies, NOEL Christmas Tree Ornaments, Tiny Trimming Ornaments, Merry Maker Monks, Little Town of Bethlehem, Profile Series, and other unique collectibles that they make."

Matt - that's a lot of collecting! Your D56 extravaganza website has a tremendous amount of great content and links connecting the D56 world.

From his "frequently asked questions" page:
"My mom always had a Christmas village, and I was intrigued by it. My brother and I used to help her set up the village every year. In December 1994 at age 11, I decided to start my own village. Ashbury Inn was my first purchase. Having financial assistance from my parents and especially my grandmother, the collection started growing VERY fast. After just a few years, I was able to catch up with most of the retired pieces. Up until this past year, I purchased every new introduction. Since I recently ran out of display room, I now collect only the pieces that I really like or are part of the Historic Landmark collection. The rest is history."

Comments

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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