It was a day of post-holiday shopping several years ago that inadvertently put us on a path to what has become a surprising and greatly anticipated moment each year: the day the Christmas village gets set up.
We were at a Greenhouse and Gift Shop in B.C. not far from where my mom lives, checking out sales on Christmas d茅cor. My husband spotted a light-up church complete with Nativity figures and little did we know it was the start of something special.
The next year he added a house, and the year after another house. Then a school, a hotel and a theatre. Soon he started receiving pieces as gifts or he would select something new to add to the scene. It grew and it grew to the point that our Christmas village has become one of our favorite decorations each year.
Well, it鈥檚 not so much decoration anymore as it is installation, since it has grown to the point that the village is soon going to need its own postal code.
The earliest known Christmas villages were Nativity displays. They grew larger when families in Europe began placing a variety of pieces around the manger scene to more fully depict Bethlehem.
When an American department store owner saw these additions in the late 1800s, he built on the idea and soon entire villages could be found in stores and mail-order catalogues. The practice waned in the 1950s but saw a resurgence when ceramic items replaced the cardboard structures. You can purchase all types of structures to create displays: farmhouses, train stations, workshops, fire halls, hospitals, churches, any store you can imagine, all wired to create a rather magical display as light pours through each and every little window pane. But prior to the magic comes a whole lot of work.
Each time I look at the village I declare a different piece to be my favorite. I love the Victorian house with attached atrium. Or the toy boutique, or maybe my favourite is the pond where children are out skating. I love all the details.
Just a few feet away, nestled in garland at the top of the staircase are two special items that come out of the Christmas box each year. They are small and would likely go unnoticed amidst the scale of other Christmas elements. But they matter.
The first is a red ornament with a staff of music, two little angels and the words 鈥楽ilent Night, Holy Night鈥� in white etching.聽 I loved that red ornament more than any other decoration that hung on our tree when I was growing up. A few years ago, I asked my mom if I could have it and I can鈥檛 wait each year to hang it up.
The other is a little red elf my husband has had for as long as he can remember. The elf sits with his arms wrapped around his tucked-in legs, flashing an adorable impish grin. Neither of these would draw much attention from others, but then again, they鈥檙e not meant to.
I love getting the house ready with our touches of Christmas. It鈥檚 special鈥攂ecause it鈥檚 special to us. The lights and candles, pinecones and poinsettias and even a holiday village are the story keepers of our Christmases past, just waiting to be brought out of storage bins and made part of a new celebration. Their beauty lies not in the perfection of the design, but in the delight that it brings and the memories it inspires. That鈥檚 my outlook.
