Santa's Village

Welcome to our entry, where our two life-size 

nutcrackers stand guard over Santa's Village. 

For some reason I have never blogged about 

my Dept. 56 village - North Pole Series, but 

it is definitely the favorite of the little ones.  

They climb up on the piano bench and look 

in fascination.

I have had these working nutcrackers for over 

20 years, and the Santa's Village has been a 

collection for over 25 - since the children 

were little.  The white piano creates the perfect 

snowy backdrop for the village.  

The centerpiece of the village is Santa's castle, which 

actually wasn't from the North Pole collection, but 

from another of Dept. 56's collection, but it was 

sparkly and covered with glitter like the North Pole, 

so I purchased it.  Hubby liked it so much that 

he wanted me to get one for each of our children

so they could each have one before they were 

discontinued.  So when they were all still living 

at home, they received one for a Christmas present.  

Mrs. Claus is busy everywhere.  She skates with 

Santa, 

and hands out cookies to the elves,

and even working in her greenhouse. Elves are working 

furiously everywhere in preparation for Christmas. 

Minnie is busy baking too,

baking and delivering pies,

and Mickey-shaped cookies.

My Patience Brewster house is one of my 

favorites, with it's whimsical high heels 

and boa accents. 

The favorite of the little ones is the gum drop factory, 

because the row of gum drops move. 

There is something magical about the details of the 

houses.  

I used to get a new one every year, but I ran out of 

room on this snowy landscape.  I have added some of 

the gingerbread themed houses to my kitchen display, since 

they were so adorable, and I couldn't resist!

My daughters love receiving new ones each 

year, but the one that makes me smile the most 

is my youngest son, who is now 25.  He loves 

them the most of my boys.  He remembers climbing 

on the piano bench and staring at them for hours, 

just like the little ones do now.  

There is something magical about miniatures. 

I love my peppermint walkway leading to the castle, 

and the little bridge that goes over it. 

Another of my favorites is Santa's balloon trying 

to escape.

And the one the kids find the funniest is 

this one with a reindeer sitting in the hot tub.  

If you haven't figured me out yet, I love whimsy and 

magic, and creating magic for my little ones in my 

decor and entertaining.  I love watching them run 

into the house, delighting in all of the fun.  

Even though they can easily reach the village, for 

the most part they are very good not to touch or 

break it.

They love this one too with the spyglass 

circling around and around.

For years, when the kids were younger, I didn't 

always put it out because it was so much work getting 

it out of the boxes, but then I decided these weren't 

collector items, but family items, so I removed them 

from the boxes, threw the boxes away, and stored them 

in under-the-bed type storage boxes with paper towels 

between the boxes.  So now, I can set the whole village 

up, and light it in 45 minutes.  Now it is the first 

thing I set up every year, and it is the first thing 

the children see when they walk through the door.

Just one note about my giant nutcracker soldiers - 

they were sold at Costco all those years ago.  I bought 

them and didn't have a way to get them home, so my 

sister Joni ran home to get her truck and we brought 

them home.  Costco has never had them again - they 

have had ones that don't actually function as nutcrackers, 

but in almost every Hallmark Christmas movie, you can see 

these big guys!