The finest Christmas traditions have an element of nostalgia to them — a sense of fragile history and childhood magic recaptured for a short time, and then overwhelmed again by the requirements of a new year. The Christmas village is just one charming annual show that romanticizes Christmas Past in a miniature world of storybook houses, sparkling snow and holiday icons. In case you have a bay window which overlooks the front part of the home, you may share the dream with passersby and arriving guests.
Lightfall
Hang a curtain of waterfall icicle fairy lights over a bay window to illuminate your small stage. Change the elevations using empty, clean, cardboard food containers and shoe boxes, turned upside-down and covered with a blanket of freshly fallen fake ice. Setting some LED light strings beneath the ice makes the whole village gleam from within. When you put the little shops and houses, poke holes in the ice blanket to pull some lights to the buildings so they throw a warm glow out their windows over the snow.
Winged Carolers
A dream village produced from decorated wood birdhouses catches Christmas fairies, angels and bright red cardinals in mid-flight. Buy an assortment of small birdhouses from a craft shop and assign the young artists in the family the job of decorating them. Supply paints, patterned papers, vellum for window glass, scraps of fancy trim, buttons and bits of decoration — anything which will embellish and personalize a Christmas village home. Spread a carpet of fake grass over a bay window ledge, give it a light spray of fake ice and also arrange the one time houses. Perch winged fairies and busy Santa’s elves on, in and about the houses. Suspend gossamer angels and feathered birds from monofilament line above the village. Hang light bulbs in the center of vellum cylinders with snowflake punch-outs to illuminate the scene.
Winter Wonderland
Ring your village and fill the square with winter actions that call up simpler times. On a flat round mirror “pond,” position miniature skaters with old-fashioned costumes and trailing mufflers. Assign a doll family to haul a bottle brush tree to town on a very small sled. Spray pine cones fir-green, then spray them again using a dusting of fake snow, and set them alongside the houses as trees. Place one gingerbread house prominently in the village and put additional dolls around it, decorating it with candies, candy canes, icing and gumdrops. Collect a group of children to build a large snowman of polystyrene balls, at the middle of town.
North Pole Village
No rule says the bay window village can not be Santa’s workshop and residence, so create a dream North Pole in front window. Use your heirloom ceramic Christmas village houses, lightly dusted with fake ice or ice glitter, for the periphery. Then paint and decorate DIY cardboard “putz” houses to be Santa’s own house with Mrs. Claus merrily baking cookies and the bustling workshop filled with elves and mini toys under building. Park the sleigh right out front on a snowbank and start with the reindeer grazing for sprouts of green poking up through the ice. As Christmas approaches, tap on the reindeer to the sleigh and start to fill a significant deck with toys. On Christmas Eve, hang Santa’s sleigh in the “sky” from clear monfilament line, as he sets off on his trip to reap all of the good boys and girls.