What's Wrong With THIS Picture!? LOL … REAL PLASTIC SNOW! As Opposed to…. FAKE Plastic Snow?? I was cracking up as I pulled this out of the box to use on my Dept. 56 Village set up today! I was thinking of all of you friends who live in REAL snow… well, this is as close as I get to snow here in the San Francisco Bay Area! But I put it to good use and "snowed" on my village…
We started collecting Dept. 56 pieces about 22 years ago, .. we started with the Dicken's Village pieces, then added the city pieces (firehouse, church, post office, bank, school), then started collecting a bunch of seaside pieces (lighthouse, boats, ponds, dock, fences, trees, etc.), then we started getting all the North Pole pieces (santa, elves, etc.), and the latest pieces we collected were fun things like the travel agency (with a BERMUDA CRUISE picture in the front window!), the Cantina, Krispy Kreme, Pizzaria, bowling alley, treehouse, garage sale, golf green, etc… we mix and match them all.. it's so fun.. but a lot of work to set up. This year I only put up about 15% of what we own.. maybe someday if we move to a big home I'll have space to put it all up.
Do any of you collect Dept. 56? I'd love to see photos of how you set yours up!
Back to stamping tomorrow…
Christmas Cheer!
Wow this village is just beautiful. I just love the Real Plastic Snow! That is just to funny.
Hey Patti –
I’d be happy to send you some real snow from Iowa!!! LOL!!!
Wonderful collection and very nicely displayed, Patty. Thanks for sharing it with us. Pam
Patty, do you ever do anything ugly? I’m astounded every day at your creativity. One of the highlights of my day to see what you’ve come up with. My mom used to collect Dept56 stuff and had amassed quite a village…until Hurricane Ivan swept all the boxes she stored them in out to sea!!
And I’ll send some real Ohio snow over to you!
Wow, Patty, it looks great! Love the Krispy Kreme one! And the Real Plastic Snow cracked me up…
My Mom LOVES Christmas villages and although her pieces aren’t as nice as yours, she loves to shop for more every year. I love the look – I’m just not sure I have to patience (or room for that matter) to set everything up!
This is so beautiful and peaceful…..I love it !!! Thanks for sharing it with all of us 🙂
love your Christmas village … aren’t they fun … I am addicted too! not sure if mine is the same brand as yours but I love collecting pieces for it each year. I have mine on my blog if you are interested in seeing it.
http://stampowl.blogspot.com/2008/12/its-beginning-to-look-lot-like.html
We actually set our Department 56 Snow Village up on top of our kitchen cabinets. It’s set up on top of big styrofoam sheets. It’s out of the way, but still really visible and nice to enjoy for most of the winter season. We try to have it up before Thanksgiving so everyone can see it then and it’s the last decoration we take down after the holidays–usually not until late January.
My Grandpa doesn’t collect any specific brand, but his village is so large that this year he did away with the simple painted backdrop and had my cousin paint a whole wall! (He leaves the village up year-round now)
Patty, we started the same thing when my 24 year old son was little and kept adding, and kept adding. Wish I could send you a picture, but after it took over 1/2 my living room, I decided to wait until I had grandkids to do this again. My 24 year old is no longer into it!
Have a Merry Christmas and thanks for sharing so much of your great ideas.
I’d be happy to send you some of the real snow too as long as you send me some of your sunshine and warmth. Its -1 here in Vt today. Actually its suppose to warm up to 50 by Wednesday, go figure. Its funny but The weather man can never predict Vermont weather unless its day of type thing. LOL. Once in awhile he gets it right. Vermont weather is so unpredictable.
Enjoy your village and Fake (real plastic) Snow. The village is beautiful.
Beautiful village Patty. I’d go for some real plastic snow after dealing with years of Chicago snow! But I guess we always want what we can’t have. Blessings to you & your family this Christmas.
Your village is beautiful Patty; cars and all.
I have a Santa’s Village (not Dept. 56) d every building lights up but I have not put it up in many years. I am sure my two children don’t even remeber it. I really should put it out but as you say it takes space.
love the village, but the real snow is nothing like our real snow up here in the north country(vermont)probably not as cold either.
Beautiful village. My husbands family always had a village under the tree. We haven’t in the last couple years due to being gone for Christmas. Some years we even put a small working train.
I love these villages. I am so tickled to see yours and it makes me wish that I had my tree up already. I am hoping by the end of the week!
Merry Christmas to you!
Real plastic snow. Yeah right! We got about 6″ of the real stuff over night and we are expecting another 8″ today. Wanna trade?
Love your sense of humor, made me giggle!
Love your village. I am trying to finsh mine up tonight. Once I get it up I will put pictures of it on my blog. Mine takes up the whole living room and it 2 stories high.
Great Job!
Jenice
I have collected the Dept. 56 New England Village for years and years and the Halloween village for about 8 years. Because the New England village has many pieces that are also “fallish” I put my village up in October and it stays up through January (except for the Halloween pieces of course!).
This year my daughter got married and for her shower I gave her her first Dept. 56 piece from the North Pole collection for her own home. It is so fun:)
Your village looks great!
P.S. I grew up in the Bay Area and lived in Boulder Creek as a child. Do you remember the old Santa’s Village amusement park that they used to have along Hwy. 17 up past Los Gatos? That is what the North Pole village reminds me of. Love it!
Your Dept. 56 village brings back memories. I too started collecting them over 20 years ago. When I moved, most of them were damaged. Now I collect Lexax (cute, but not as nice). We haven’t had snow yet here in NYC, but I’ll be happy to send you ALL of ours when we do. lol.
Ann
Hi! How fun. My husband and I just started collecting the New England village 4 years ago. We have 6. We enjoy them. We’re looking forward to collecting more!
Patty i love your christmas village.That gives me lots of memories back,as i was in USA if i was a child. So wonderful!!
And i also can send you a bit German snow*hihi*
Melanie
That village is just Fabulous Patty!! I didn’t know you collected those beautiful pieces. It looked terrific with the fake plastic snow!! ha ha fake plastic, what a hoot!!
xxshirl
I love your village! I started to collect them but didn’t have room anymore. My Aunt had a massive collection too so i gave mine to her so I can just look at her village with the complete set. The only Dept 56 I have is my Christmas Tree 🙂
OMG, I have a Penguin Family TOO!!!! Everything on your blog looks GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReat!!!!
Hugs,
Lois Folla
Hi Patty
I know I’m a couple of years late but I love your Christmas decorating and your Dept. 56. We collect only the Dickens Village and don’t have nearly as many pieces as you – space does limit one! I’ll send along a photo. Thanks for sharing – I’m always interested in Christmas!