Thanks to all for the wonderful suggestions for my son's first North Pole piece. I'm not sure which one we are leaning toward, but I will certainly let everyone know. It's funny, because we are space challenged in our condo, and I am going to have to part ways with some Snow Village pieces to give us some extra storage room. I'd gladly exchange Snow Village for North Pole pieces, but I'd definitely have to give up 2 or 3 pieces for 1 so that we end up with more storage space.
Here are some of the suggestions which came in:
"I have every piece of the village. My recommendation for your first piece would be Santa’s original house with the two accessories. One accessory is of Santa and Mrs. Claus with an elf and the second accessory is Santa’s sled and eight reindeer. I would follow with the Yummy Gummy Factory. It's a cool piece and has gummy tree accessories that accent the factory."
"The one you can find at the greatest discount! By the time he's old enough, Christmas of '09, you'll have quite a few."
"Since the child isn't born yet it would be hard to pick a piece based on the child's likings and interests. I guess just pick a piece and go from there. The Rudolph and Frosty pieces might be nice to start with. You might want to check E-bay or other websites to get good bargains. I know I have a few duplicate pieces I'd like to sell and there may be other collectors here who might have spare pieces laying around. Good luck."
"My suggestion is "Santa's Toy Company" you can even find the early release gold top on ebay from time to time close to half price or slightly more. You don't have to get all the S-A-N-T-A buildings but can use this one building as a foundation for the set. Or another suggestion... but it's not retired. The new Dump Truck building ("Dumpy's Toy Trucks"). It's so nice for a boy!!!"
"My suggestion would be the Reindeer Barn with the sled and 8 reindeer" "You will want to get the accessory "Proud Papa & Mama" for sure. ;-) I know that's Elfland."
"Congrats!! Hmm, this one is tough. Santa's castle would probably be good since, as santa's house, it would be the centerpiece of the village. Santa does need a house you know, lol -- or you could just start with fun pieces like the hot wheels building or reindeer rides or the lego building, etc. Santa's visiting center would also be a good one. I think my vote would be for either santa's castle or the visiting center as the first pieces. Good luck picking, there are sooooo many to choose from!"
"I vote for Route 1, North Pole which I always considered the home of Santa. The Castle came much later I believe."
"Rich - that's wonderful news - and collecting the North Pole pieces is PERFECT for a child. I personally would start the collection with pieces you love the most. At this point obviously the "whole" collection isn't feasible. There are 3 pieces that are current that I think are wonderful for children & could honestly be displayed all year together, or as individual vignettes (displaying all year pieces are important to me as I love to see the collection being used). My choices in order are: Rubber Duck Factory, Dumpy's Toy Trucks, and Jolly's Jigsaw Puzzle Workshop. I just feel these could easily be used in a room display and have so many possibilies for cute accessories to go with them. Plus these themes could be extended to the room in different ways as Liam grows up. As the "collection" grows, then I would see which of the "home base" pieces you might want to add (or you may want to stick with just the fun pieces and hope that Santa really lives in an RV full time and travels the world enjoying himself when he is not slaving at the North Pole)."
"A building that I really like (and the first one that my daughter fell in love with) is the Crayola Polar Palette Art Center."
"One for the old and one for the new: Obviously, Rte. 1, North Pole is a good place to start because of its traditions and links to the past. I also like M&M's Candy Factory- what child would not like M&Ms? What a place to start! I have both if you cannot find them."
"Congratulations Rich and wife and I think since he is going to be a little boy that would delight on anything from a village....his first thing should be a train, then you can buy whatever buildings and accessories you want but he will be delighted with that train forever....My 2 cents worth, LOL"
"Since they were initially a bit smaller (and cheaper) than other NP buildings, I'd recommend the Elf Land buildings to start things off. Of current buildings, maybe the Rubber Duck Factory? Other option is the old set of two (though later sold sepatately) with Reindeer Barn & Elf Bunkhouse, which were available for quite a long time. (One other option: start with the old Storybook Village sets.)"
"I think he's thinking of a building. I saw this post earlier today through the yahoo group and voted for either santa's castle, so the start of the north pole village has a place to sleep at night, or the santa visiting center since going to see santa will be something you guys do for the next several years together. I just figured the first piece should be the most special of the bunch, there's plenty of time to get the fun pieces like the lego or hot wheels buildings, etc."
Many thanks to the Yahoo! Department 56 Group and the Building New Worlds social network!
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