Creating a Christmas Village

 

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 Welcome to creating your own towns and villages. I believe we all at one time or another liked to play with doll houses and train sets. Whether your a man or a woman, young or old, into collecting or not, it doesn't matter... Who can resist the lore of creating their own town? You make it the way you think it should be and there is just something irresistible about that.

 

Although it is really fun, there is quite a lot of work involved. Here you will see and learn many tips to make creating your town easier.

 

A few tools you might like to have to make the job easier are, Styrofoam (hot wire) cutter, electrical power strips, and hot glue gun. You will also need Styrofoam sheets, (found in craft stores) blanket of snow (cotton batting), and sprinkle snow.

Styrofoam Sheets

Hot wire cutter

Blanket of  Snow

The first thing you will want to do is pick the area where you want to place your village. Make sure you give it plenty of space so you can add trees and accessories. The accessories add realism to your village making them look like much more than a figurine just sitting there. The best surfaces are tables or buffet tops. Mantels are very nice but they limit how much arranging you can do. They are great for small collections though. 

 

After you have chosen your area, you will want to get the Styrofoam sheets and lay them out on the surface. (If your afraid of scratching the furniture, cover with cloth first.) Lay out a single layer over the entire surface leaving a border of 1 foot all the way around the outside with nothing. Start placing your houses where you want them on the Styrofoam sheets. As you work, you may decide that you want certain houses higher. Place another sheet under them. If you don't need the whole sheet use the cutter to make them the size you want. Be sure to keep the tallest pieces in the middle and smaller pieces on the outside. This makes them much easier to see. If you wish to use brick streets that go through your town (roads), leave space for them now when placing the houses/buildings. You can even create a town square in the very center. Just make sure to use enough Styrofoam sheets to get it high enough to be seen.

 

After you have all your houses/buildings where you want them, get the cords and put them into the houses. Make sure you have new bulbs in them so you don't have to worry about burnt out bulbs half way through your holiday season. Run the cords to a power strip (or two) and plug in. If you have a town square, I would put a power strip on each side of the table so they don't run across wide open areas to much. To hide the cords, you can use the Styrofoam cutter and shave off 1/4 of an inch of the sheets and push the cords down into the crevasses.

 

After your village buildings are placed and lit up, you will want to add some of the accessories. If you have any accessories that light up, definitely place them now! If you are using street lamps place them so they zig zag back and forth across the street. After you have them in place, use sticky tack or hot glue to keep them upright and not moving. Now place you brick road over the top of the wires, hiding the street lamp wires. Run the cord back behind the nearest building. Completely place all your roads down now. If you don't have a road you can make one using fish tank gravel, sand, thin pieces of slate or rock. Don't place any people yet. Do put your trees in now. Mix them up for a more realistic look.

 

 Now you need to get the blanket of snow ready. You will place the blanket of snow under the houses. It is thick and pulls apart easily so you can pull some of the snow up and over any cords that you can see. Push it right up to the houses. Cover all cords and also the power strips. Cover the power strips very loosely so they can breath. You don't want them to get to hot. Around the outer edge cover completely with snow. Now you should see only lit buildings and trees and street lights and lighted accessories. No cords. Lastly, go into village and place people,   cars, animals, and any other little accessory you have to add to the look. Use some plastic and glittery snow to sprinkle over the entire village to give it a look of fresh fallen snow. You may sprinkle white or silver glitter on the blanket of snow for the same affect. 

                                                            

 

These are some different village displays you could get ideas from. Have fun!

This is the Dept. 56 New England Village.

This display is on a tiny table with a wreath placed above. When trying this...Make sure you have the building tied into the wreath very securely.

This is Dept. 56 Original Snow Village. Notice how the streets stretch back into the village. Also the buildings in the back are higher than those in the front so you can see them. The streets also gradually go up the slope also.

This is another Dept. 56 Original Snow Village. Notice how the streets go back and wind through the houses. Again the houses in the center are raised higher than those in the front so they can be seen.

 

 

This is Dept. 56 Christmas in the City. I tried to give this the feel of a city by placing a city park in the center. I also used lots of accessories to give it a hustle and bustle feeling of Christmas.

 

 

 

The Photo at the top of the page is another way to display           houses. For those folks who have this type of window in their homes, a village here looks beautiful and can be seen from  outside their homes. This is a nice replacement for a Christmas Tree. The buildings displayed are Dept. 56 Dickens Village.   

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