Snow Village and Christmas Tree

Here are some pictures of my snow village and our Christmas tree.
Hope you enjoy looking at them.

Christmas morning - the stockings were stuffed!
Our ornaments are a group of handmade ones from the girls school and Girl Scout days, dated Hallmark collections and the family ornament tradition (I'll post about that after the 28th as I don't want to spoil the surprise for any family members who read the blog) DD17 put the ornaments on this year. I tried to leave some room for DD19 to add some of hers but she thought it was already full. I did manage to squeeze a few of hers on the tree too. I may have to put up a second tree somewhere else in the house just to be able to use more of our ornaments. At least when the girls move out and take their ornaments we will have plenty of our own to use. I'll have to post about our dated Hallmark ornaments too - another day!


My snow village is an eclectic set of houses. Three are from It's A Wonderful Life, one is a hand finished piece that my mom purchased from a friend of hers as Christmas presents for all the children one year, and one is just a cute pastry shop I found at Walmart many years ago. The figurines are mostly Department 56 Snow Village. Some are gypsum figurines that I painted long before marriage and kids. I got most of the Department 56 items on E-Bay. This year I am adding 2 pieces - one has not arrived yet as I just found it a couple days ago.


Above is the pastry shop (Maria's) and the Christmas pageant figurine.


Next down the street is a lady and 3 girls going to ballet class. Behind them are 2 boys - the older is pulling the younger on a sled. And we continue down the street to Gower's Drugstore.



In front of Gower's we have a little boy and his mother taking his piggy bank for his first deposit (some day maybe I will have the Bailey Savings and Loan building to go with this figurine). There is also a child in a sleigh yelling "Skate faster, Mommy!" The man on the park bench in front of Gower's is a new piece this year. He is actually from the Heritage Village and is a little smaller than the others but I fell in love with him - it is called "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman".

And on down the street is 320 Sycamore - the home of George and Mary Bailey. The huge snowman is actually a Christmas ornament that I added to the snow village before I had so many figurines and now he just stays there. To the right is a man and child snow-blowing - I chose that figurine because my dad's business which is now owned by a brother sells snow-blowers and lawn mowers.

Here we have the Hatch home from It's A Wonderful Life. The couple kissing is also one that I painted. Maybe it is George and Mary ? The paper route figurines ( 2 boys and the dalmation) were a must-have since we all grew up delivering papers. We would deliver the Globe in the morning before school and the Post in the afternoon. We either rode our bikes or Dad took us and we stood on the running boards of the truck (you don't see those any more). Later he drove the car and one of us (usually the girl) would sit between him and the driver's door and the other child would sit in the passenger seat. The person sitting on the side of the car where the paper was being delivered would get out and toss the paper on the porch - except weekend papers were too thick to be folded so we had to walk up to the porch with those.

And this is the church that started the whole village. The fugurines to the left are "Here We Come A-Caroling" The tree is part of a set of three (the other two are by the Hatch home and Gower's drug store) that I painted. So is the snowman and tree on the end.

I hope you liked your walk through my village. It changes every year!