Doing the Unthinkable: Starting my Christmas Village

Please hear me out on this.

The Christmas Village is a slightly bizarre tradition that many families partake in annually. It’s unclear exactly why these little shops and stores and churches lit up by nightlight bulbs evoke the spirit of the holidays, but alas, the phenomenon is widespread.

Personally, I did not grow up in a Christmas Village household. But our good family friends, who we celebrated Christmas Eve with every year growing up, had one— and boy was I enchanted.

I need to be abundantly clear here: the Christmas Village is a very slippery slope. A tasteful little display on the top of a sideboard or on the mantle? Great, fine, festive. But they can tip over at a certain point and start to scare me.

Photo and caption from The Poughkeepsie Journal. See what I’m saying? Sorry Phyllis but this couldn’t be me…

I understand how it happens of course. Collections drop, limited edition pieces arrive and you yearn to feel something, so you add to cart. What’s one more? Trust me I get it, I’ve been there. But I couldn’t risk this happening to me.

Naturally, I had to do my research.

I first had the idea to start a Christmas Village during covid, the birthplace of all crazy ideas. I spent hours, no— days reading about the history of the Christmas Village, doing what I always do when overwhelmed with options which is try to find the oldest, original, most classic version of the thing. Sure West Elm made a “village”, so did Pottery Barn and Target, and everyone else. But I knew there was more to the story.

My research led me to Department 56. Department 56 was founded in 1976 in Eden Prairie, Minnesota and is largely considered the birthplace of the modern Christmas Village. Other brands like Lemax popped up in its shadow, but Department 56 remains the most well known. They’re also the freaks behind Snowbabies.

But it doesn’t stop there. No, you’ll be shocked to learn, as I was, that at present, Department 56 has nearly twenty village types ranging from “Christmas in the City”, to “Dickens’ Village”, to “Harry Potter”. They also expanded to have a Halloween village but I can’t even really fathom that right now.

Some villages are honest to god, heinous to me. The “North Pole” village for example, feels cheap and gaudy and more about doing a collab with M&Ms than celebrating Santa’s hometown. The “Disney Village” lightly disturbs me for some reason, despite loving Disneyland proudly, and the thought of mixing villages really grinds my gears. I don’t want to see The Leaky Cauldron next to Tiny Tim’s family home, that’s preposterous!

I was so off-put by the modern village offerings, I nearly threw in the towel. But I knew deep down something was calling me. Everything with Disney and Harry Potter licensing deals has to start somewhere, I just had to keep digging.

And then I found it. The Original Snow Village. You might be thinking “Duh Shannon, it’s right there on the homepage next to ‘Hello Kitty Village’ and ‘A Christmas Story Village.” You’re right, there is an “Original Snow Village” tab with over 100 pieces for sale. I was close, but I needed to go back even further…

It was at this point I was annoyed with Department 56 for naming their oldest village “The Original Snow Village” because I was trying to Google the original pieces in The Original Snow Village and getting really frustrated. I was on forums and retired product lists scrolling through the 90s, 80s, and 70s, trying to decipher what launched when. Finally I found what I was looking for by reading The Department 56 Story on their website:

“One Christmas evening, a group of friends set off to enjoy a dinner of celebration at a small country inn nestled in a quiet river town. As they rounded a bend in the road, they saw the small, old-fashioned village decorated for the holidays. The lights, like fairies, glowed and sparkled amid the freshly fallen snow. All evening, the conversation was full of Christmas memories and the visions the tiny town had evoked. Amidst the jovial banter and magical memories, the idea for a lighted Christmas village was born. That spark of an idea became a reality when, in 1976, Department 56 introduced a series of six hand-painted, ceramic buildings. The rest is history.”

Six buildings! Six original ceramic (not porcelain or plastic!) hand-painted pieces from 1976! This was a collection I could get behind with a clear stopping point. I would assemble my small village of retro beauties and call it a day. No one would think to gift me more pieces, I wouldn’t become the crazy Christmas village lady with a collection that took a month to set up. I would simply have my original Original Snow Village pieces and that would be that.

The Original The Original Snow Village, 1976

I then had to find the original six pieces included in this debut collection. Pictures were easy but it was hard to get the actual names of the buildings. In a state of delusion and Christmas mania, I did it. I was also thrilled to realize every piece in the original six had a tree attached to it, with a sweet little bluebird motif throughout. From left to right we have:

1. Gabled Cottage

2. The Country Church

3. Mountain Lodge

4. The Inn

5. Steepled Church

6. Small Chalet

Now we were getting somewhere. Unfortunately, over the last 48 years, The Original Snow village has made hundreds of “inns” and “lodges” and “steepled churches”, so I had to get really specific in my searches.

Once I got the hang of how to word what I was looking for (department 56 original snow village 1976 ceramic small chalet), all were easy enough to locate on eBay and Etsy. All but one: The Inn.

I found ten Steepled Churches no problem, I located the Mountain Lodge in a blink. Sure they ranged in price, and the hand painted element meant some were prettier than others, but they weren’t so rare that I was concerned. I told myself I’d start my collection next year, you know, when I was making money hopefully. But The Inn got me nervous.

I studied the photo of The Inn carefully and thought, “gosh it really doesn’t even look like an inn… maybe people are calling in something different when they list it?” I tried everything, but no luck. What’s worse, the people who knew what they had knew it was rare and were pricing it accordingly.

Come again Replacements dot com??

I started to panic. $1000 dollars for a ceramic hut? This couldn’t be right. And what good was my Original Snow Village without The Inn!? I of course didn’t have a singular other item from the original six yet, but suddenly it felt like my village was over before it had even begun.

My bloodshot eyes scrolled and scrolled until I found one listing for The Inn, on eBay, listed at…. $55.

2 others were watching. Did they know what I knew? My heart was racing but I played it cool. Of course they didn’t, or they would have purchased already.

Feeling insane, I messaged the seller asking if this was the best she could do, I prayed that she wouldn’t look up how much her precious Inn was going for elsewhere. She responded offering $49 and reader, I’m sure it will come as no surprise to you that I bought it.

“I’m doing this for my children!” I said out loud to no one, “We’ll all be so annoyed later on if we have everything but The Inn and I’ll be kicking myself for not just purchasing it when I had the chance!”

I closed my laptop smugly, noticed it was 1am and crawled into bed.