My Christmas Village

A couple of years ago, I stopped buying physical comics and stopped 'officially' buying super hero toys. These days, I only buy comics digitally and not nearly as many as I used to buy. And toys I only buy occasionally and selectively.

Without this burden in my life, I've begun to pick up some other interests and explore things that I never had resources for before. And it's with this mindset that I finally took the plunge and did something this Christmas that I've always wanted to do.

Started a Christmas village.

I got Katie involved in the process, and Lorie ended up being much more about it than I thought she would. And we started off slow. I only bought one house this year, and one figure. The plan is to slowly grow it into a monstrously huge thing that Katie and I can work on as she grows into her teenage years.

I did some research and found out about Department 56, a company that makes these Christmas villages. The theme I chose to go with is the Dickens Village. I love the Christmas Carol story and it's many interpretations for several different reasons. And the whole 'ages gone by' thing really seemed to appeal to me as well.

We searched online together and it came down to two houses. Either the Scrooge house or the Cratchit house would be our first purchase. To me, it was obvious. We would get the Scrooge house. That's how you start your Dickens village! But Katie's vote was for the Cratchit house. (Katie often picks the opposite of what other people pick just to be difficult and see if she can get her way.) So since this was to be a joint father-daughter venture, I bought the Cratchit house and a little tiny figure of Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim.

A few weeks later we were attending the Ritchey family Christmas reunion party. At the party, there are gifts to the kids from the relatives. Under the tree that day were the Scrooge house, a figure of a street vendor selling roasted chestnuts, and several background trees. More than doubling our meager beginnings to a Christmas village. Thanks Grammy and Gramps!

We have a brand new sun room as one of the only finished parts of our house addition this year. It's where we have the 'real' Christmas tree. We threw a white table cloth over the kids air-hockey table and set the village pieces out on that. We even had enough room to set out the Christmas train set in it's entirety around the tree.

My sizable toy collection is currently all boxed up because of our work on the house addition. But once I'm unpacked, I may have some Justice League figures that will visit in the Dickens village next year. I'm picturing a tiny Aquaman with a scarf and a Santa hat standing next to Bob Cratchit. Lorie's against it.

There's a quote from my favorite Christmas movie that seems appropriate here: "I always enjoyed to make models when I was a boy; the exactness, the attention to every conceivable detail. It's beautiful."

These houses remind me of that quote. Department 56 did a fantastic job, and it makes the pieces of the Dickens village all that more impressive. See for yourself.



































Thanks,
DCD

P.S. What movie is the quote from?