Dickens Village Christmas Past

Happy 12.12.12! A little more than a week until the end of the world! ;)

Today, I brought you my Dickens Christmas Village setup from the ghost of Christmas past, otherwise known as last year, 2011.

Maybe this will help with ideas for anyone else who is trying to set up their village, as I noticed a few search results for Dickens Village setup brought people to my blog.

There is really no rhyme or reason to setting up your village. You could set them up to look like a little village proper, or you could place them separately all around the house, which I did the first few years. I placed one building on each end table in my living room, I believe.

Now that I have more buildings, I like to set them up together and stagger the heights of the buildings. This way you can see them all, and it's just more visually interesting.  The buildings in the back are sitting on top of the boxes that they came in.

As for the "snow", the buildings are just sitting on top of white cloth napkins. I've tried to use the snowy batting-type of coverings in the past, but the little figurines, trees, and street lights have a hard time standing up on such fluffy surfaces.

I actually never had any of these figurines until Jason bought them for me/us last year. I don't know how I went this long without them. They really bring it to life, along with those trees. 

Here's a bit of trivia if you've ever wondered, as I did, why the figurines are about two times too large for the houses. On the Department 56 site:

Why are the accessories' figures not in the same scale as the lighted buildings?

Since the pieces are made of porcelain or ceramic, they shrink when they are fired, usually about 5% to 15%. If we made the accessories any smaller, the tiny details would be lost, such as the petals on a flower or the folds in a woman's shawl.

Oh, how I love those snowy trees. 

I posted the house below a few weeks ago. 

Let's take a closer look. 

There seems to be a Christmas feast going on here. 

Last year, there was a pre-lit tree sharing the spot with the Village. This year, that tree is in a different location and the village is on it's own, which is especially good, since we just added a new building to the collection this month. yay!  

I'll show you this year's set up soon. 

{UPDATE: See this year's set up here.}

In the meantime, watch this video. It's wonderful and daunting at the same time. I love my Dickens Village, but I will not be going to this level, ever. Though, I do admire their dedication and I would love to visit this in person! 

And after all this Dickens Village talk. We have to watch the 1999 version of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" with Patrick Stewart.  It's my favorite. Which version is your favorite?

Happy Christmasing!