Village Collection

Village Collection

Christmas Villages-Another 5 Great Locations for your Village Display

So you still have not decided where to display your new collectible Christmas village this next holiday season.  Or maybe you are just tired of setting up your current display in the same expected location year after year and are looking for that ultimate new location to showcase your Department 56, Lemax, or other village collectibles.  Grab a notepad and pen, because you may find your creative talents energized and anxious to be put to use when you hear about these 5 great locations for your village display.

Before I suggest the following possible locations for your Christmas village, it is important to remember that the viewability of your village is affected greatly by the space you have available.  Never being a fan of displaying every single piece in my collection just for the sake of unpacking them out of mothballs, I always recommend striving for visual impact in a display over showing the quantity of a collection.  For that reason alone, you can consider the following locations to place smaller vignettes, or groupings of your village collectibles to create more visually impacting village settings.   

• Curio cabinets:  Not everyone has a curio cabinet, but for those who do, consider temporarily replacing some of your regular curios with a small village vignette or two.  The key for success here is to keep the vignettes small because of the glass shelving you typically find in a curio cabinet.  Rather than find out the hard way that your village display was too heavy for the glass shelves, why not simply group a small vignette or two where each can tell its own miniature story.  You will love the glimmering effect created by the village house lights shining and reflecting off of the mirrored background and glass enclosure of the cabinet.  It is very easy to camouflage the light cords with a few miniature pine trees strategically placed.
   
• Wall units:  Wall units are a strong and perfect location for displaying smaller village vignettes.  Because the shelving is typically wood or a composite material, you will not have to worry at all about the weight of your village like you would with a curio cabinet.  For that reason, you can experiment with terracing in your vignette.  Elevate a village piece or two towards the background to create textured focal points for viewers whether their eyes are drawn to the back or the front of your display.  Too often I see displays where a person has to strain their neck to see a beautifully detailed village building shrouded from view by another similarly sized piece or one bigger right in front of it.
         
• Garage side window:  Yes, you heard me right.  Have you ever thought of showing off your village, or maybe a few of your village pieces in a smaller vignette inside of a side garage window?  Perhaps you have been thinking for years of a way to incorporate your display in to your exterior decorating without the risk of damage from the elements.  Well, a framed display inside a garage window that is viewable towards the front of your home is a wonderful way to add a storybook appeal to your holiday decorations.  Be sure to see my article entitled ‘Creating a Magical Window Display for your Christmas Village’ for details on how to go about constructing this type of display.
    
• Foyer sideboard table:  Sideboard tables, sofa tables, and consoles are ideal locations for smaller village groupings.  They are very easy to arrange village displays on top of, and are one of the better locations for isolating your display for a more focused viewing point.  These tables offer the advantage of displaying at a level where even smaller children can see every aspect of your village setting.  Of course that can also be its greatest disadvantage.  If you believe tiny roaming hands may mean the destruction of your miniature town, choose another location.
     
• Under glass of a wood-framed coffee table:  This is a truly unique concept for displaying villages.  Imagine family and friends sitting around the family room talking about your ‘village under glass.’  This idea takes a bit more time and care to assemble your display, but the results are amazing.  If you have this type of table, simply remove the glass insert(s) temporarily while you construct your village.  Place a large enough box underneath the table to elevate the viewing surface that will be visible when you replace the glass back on top, but not so large that the tops of the village buildings or trees are too high and protrude through the glass level.  Make sure to place a solid and flat item on top of the box to create a sound surface, such as a shelf or two side by side.  Cover the box and shelf with a small white tablecloth to not only cover the more unsightly aspects of your box foundation, but to also give your display a nice wintry effect.  Finally, employ your own personal creativity to make a truly unique type of display.
     

I hope you enjoyed these ideas for possible locations to display your village.  You may even have a few of your own that suit your home even better.  The key thing is to take some time and consider the visual impact you can achieve rather than just lining up your collection end to end. 

Merry Christmas!

About the Author

Stephen Baird is an author, villagescape artisan, and founder-owner of the popular and well respected Christmas display firm Village Fantasies, designers of animated and life like Harvest and Christmas villages for commercial clients. If you are a business that would like to attract more foot traffic during the holidays, or you would just love to enjoy the artisan work of Stephen, please visit our site.

Village $20.29 Village

The Village $6.99 The Village

In the Village of Viger $14.99 The ten stories in In the Village of Viger portray the life of a rural village as it faces the darkness of its own future. An established milliner, Madame Laroque, is upset by the advent of a younger, more popular rival. An innkeeper’s obsession with the Franco-Prussian War drives his descent into madness. A gardener longs to return to the village in France where his mother was born. At once comical, farcical, and tragic, this superb collection, first published in 1896, anticipates later collections of linked short stories including Alice Munro’s Who Do You Think You Are? and Margaret Laurence’s A Bird in the House .

A Village Life $13.12 A Village Life, Louise Gluck's eleventh collection of poems, begins in the topography of a village, a Mediterranean world of no definite moment or place: "All the roads in the village unite at the fountain.""Avenue of Liberty, Avenue of the Acacia Trees--""The fountain rises at the center of the plaza;""on sunny days, rainbows in the piss of the cherub.""--from "tributaries""Around the fountain are concentric circles of figures, organized by age and in degrees of distance: fields, a river, and, like the fountain's opposite, a mountain. Human time superimposed on geologic time, all taken in at a glance, without any undue sensation of speed. Gluck has been known as a lyrical and dramatic poet; since Ararat, she has shaped her austere intensities into book-length sequences. Here, for the first time, she speaks as "the type of describing, supervising intelligence found in novels rather than poetry," as Langdon Hammer has written of her long lines--expansive, fluent, and full--manifesting a calm omniscience. While Gluck's manner is novelistic, she focuses not on action but on pauses and intervals, moments of suspension (rather than suspense), in a dreamlike present tense in which poetic speculation and reflection are possible.

The Village Watchtower $18.15 The Village Watchtower is a collection of glimpses of rural American life at the turn of the twentieth century. One story is about Lucinda Bascome, an elderly woman who sits at her window watching all that happens in the village. She would be lonely, except that people come to her for gossip. Her house and her window are set up in such a way that she sees everything that goes on in the village. Another glimpse is of Tom, a young wild boy who prefers to live in the wilderness than in the shelter of a house. All the stories are set in the same small town. And each glimpse is based on Wiggins experiences in a small American town. Kate Douglas Wiggin was the author of the famed Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, She was also an advocate in early education and created the kindergarten school in which most American children go to in the modern era. Author: Wiggin, Kate Douglas Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 108 Publication Date: 2007/04/01 Language: English Dimensions: 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.26 inches

Strange Tales from the Village $19.58 A collection of tales; weird, spiritual, witchcraft, murder and sexual deviance in the beautiful village of Shorendike, a place of Gathering.

M. Night Shyamalan Collection (The Village / Signs / Unbreakable / The Sixth Sense) $9.99 M. Night Shyamalan Collection (The Village / Signs / Unbreakable / The Sixth Sense)

In a Village. [Poems.] $23.73 Title: In a Village. Poems.]Publisher: British Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the worlds largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC.The POETRY DRAMA collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The books reflect the complex and changing role of literature in society, ranging from Bardic poetry to Victorian verse. Containing many classic works from important dramatists and poets, this collection has something for every lover of the stage and verse. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library Bridges, John Affleck; null 8 . 011652.g.66. Author: Bridges, John Affleck Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 96 Publication Date: 2011/02/15 Language: English Dimensions: 7.44 x 9.69 x 0.20 inches

The Village of the West. $33.09 Title: The Village of the West.Publisher: British Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the worlds largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC.The NOVELS OF THE 18th 19th CENTURIES collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The collection includes major and minor works from a period which saw the development and triumph of the English novel. These classics were written for a range of audiences and will engage any reading enthusiast. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library Baddeley, Richard Whieldon; 1870. 3 vol.; 8 . 12628.f.4. Author: Baddeley, Richard Whieldon Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 316 Publication Date: 2011/03/25 Language: English Dimensions: 7.44 x 9.69 x 0.66 inches

Lemax Caddington Village Collection Magistrate Figurine #22566 $2.99 Lemax Caddington Village Collection Magistrate FigurineItem #22566Approx. size: ( H ) 2-5/8 inches, 6.6 cm Material: Poly-resin Type: Collectibles Color: Multi-Color

The Village Comedy. $33.87 Title: The Village Comedy.Publisher: British Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the worlds largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC.The FICTION PROSE LITERATURE collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. The collection provides readers with a perspective of the world from some of the 18th and 19th centurys most talented writers. Written for a range of audiences, these works are a treasure for any curious reader looking to see the world through the eyes of ages past. Beyond the main body of works the collection also includes songbooks, comedy, and works of satire. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library Collins, Edward James Mortimer; Collins, Frances; 1878 1877]. 3 vol.; 8 . 12639.aa.8. Author: Collins, Edward James Mortimer/ Collins, Frances Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 330 Publication Date: 2011/01/10 Language: English Dimensions: 9.69 x 7.44 x 0.69 inches

Village Roadshow Theme Parks and Attractions $62.68 High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles Village Roadshow Theme Parks and Attractions is a collection of divisions of Village Roadshow Limited which operate theme parks and attractions in Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America. Village Roadshow Theme Parks and Attractions is made up of Sydney Attractions Group Pty Ltd, Village Roadshow Theme Parks and Village Roadshow Theme Parks USA Inc. The theme park division of Village Roadshow was originally a joint venture between Time Warner and Village Roadshow until Village took full ownership of the group in 2006. Time Warner continues to provide a licence to the Warner Bros. brand.

The Village Poet and Collection of Writings $22.91 No Synopsis Available

Friendship Village $16.73 First published in 1908, this is the first collection of the author's popular "Friendship Village" stories.

The Pilgrim Village Mystery $10.27 The Boxcar Children encounter a mystery when they go to stay at Pilgrim Village, a restored historical town that is threatened by a series of nighttime break-ins, in a storybook accompanied by a collection of puzzles, crafts, and recipes. Simultaneous.

A Village $34.99 Egon Schiele A Village - Giclee Print

Snow Village ''Snowman Watertower'' #800013 $37.5 "Snowman Watertower" from Department 56's Snow Village Collection. Size: 6.75" x 4.5" x 12". Collector Notes: Introduced December, 2007.

Lemax Village Collection Large 9 Frosted Tree #04482 $6.99 Lemax Village Collection 9" Frosted Tree.Approx. size: 8-5/8 inches High (22.0 cm) Type: Collectibles Color: Multi-Color

Lemax Vail Village Collection Polson's Pottery #85679 $34.99 Lemax Polson's PotteryFrom the Vail Village Collection, Item #85679Porcelain lighted building With 1.83m cord (6 feet) On/Off switch Approx. size: ( H x W x D ) 8-1/4 x 8-5/8 x 6-1/8 inches21.1 x 22.0 x 15.5 cm Type: Collectibles Color: Multi-Color

Lemax Village Collection Small Mountain Backdrop #81013 $13.99 From the Lemax Village CollectionItem #81013"Small Mountain Backdrop"Includes 1 display backdrop and 7 assorted bristle treesEasily cut the backdrop to fit your desired spacingsApproximate dimensions: (H x W x D)3.03 x 11.02 x 9.84 inches7.7 x 28 x 25 cmMaterial(s): foam/plastic Type: Collectibles Color: Multi-Color

Gold Collection Holiday Village Cross Stitch Kit $60.9 Gold Collection Kits are wonderfully detailed with full and half cross stitchesCross stitch a lovely rustic holiday village with this kitKit includes 16-count dove grey Aida cotton thread, thread sorter, sequins, needle and easy instructionsMats and frames are not included unless otherwise stated

Nong Nooch Village in Pattaya $22.23 Nong Nooch, an ideal family holiday getaway, is a charming little village, minutes away from Asias most cosmopolitan beach resort Pattaya. Nong Noochs Tropical Garden and Recreational Park offer sights and sounds that will be remembered for a lifetime. The fascinating Tropical Garden is beautifully landscaped and styled like a Thai village. See the largest collection of orchids in Thailand in the Orchid Nursery, a vast palm collection and tons of other tropical fauna in the Botanical Gardens. Witness a Cultural Extravaganza showcasing the pomp and splendour of Thai tradition and ceremonies. Enjoy an elephant show and grab an opportunity to ride one yourself! Nong Nooch is an excellent fun-filled family holiday getaway and will give you a memorable experience of the rich and varied heritage of Thailand.