A New Hobby

When I was a little girl, my grandmother always put a Christmas village out on display in her living room. My cousins and I always played (very carefully!) with it. It's one of the happiest memories I have of my childhood.

So, I was playing around on the computer today, looking at this and looking at that, when I saw a Halloween tree centerpiece. I didn't like the price I saw on the website. They wanted 60 bucks just for the tree, so no thanks. I decided to do a google search to see if I could find another one. What I found made me very happy!

Department 56, the company that makes the Christmas village my grandmother collects, also makes a Halloween village! Happy Halloween to me! I ran upstairs to excitedly tell Ben about my new hobby. His response? "Sounds expensive." I said "Well...it is. Which means I can't buy it all at once...which makes it a collection!" Luckily, my reasoning worked!

I want to do both a Halloween village, and a Christmas village. For the Halloween village, these are the first pieces I want.

  

Walter and Larry's Crypt. I love the tree and the fact that it lights up! And it's so detailed. 

  

Spooky Spider Trees. They look like they belong next to the crypt! Love the little spiders too. 

  

Wrought iron fencing. Every decent spooky graveyard needs it! 

  

And, of course, the tombstones! It wouldn't be a crypt without them.  For all five of these pieces, the cost comes to about $120.00. I don't think that's horrible for starting a collection like this. 

Now let's talk about the Christmas village. This one means a lot to me, because as I mentioned earlier, my grandmother and grandfather always had one out at Christmas. To start my own collection, I'd like these pieces. 

  

The Patriot's House. This couldn't be more perfect for our family! I love the patriotic decor and the vintage looking Sisal trees. 

  

Christmas mail for the troops...enough said! Also, I like that it has the year 2011 on it, to me remind me of the year I started my collection. 

  

A landscaping set, with those sisal trees I love. All told, starting the Christmas village with the pieces I want will be about $160. Kind of pricey, but this means a lot to me and I think we can do it. 

I can't wait to start the tradition of adding new pieces each Halloween and Christmas! Hopefully my girls with grow up with the same memories of these villages that I have.