christmas villages

I've been seeing a lot of beautiful mini Christmas villages on other blogs lately so I thought I'd share some photos of ours. This little village is pretty much my dad's pride and joy every Christmas. My mom does most of the decorating in the house with little Christmas knick knacks and garlands and bows, but my dad is all about his platform and trains. He has a few sets of antique trains inherited from his parents but the ones in these pictures are Polar Express trains from the movie.


I've watched this collection grow over the years, from a few houses and a train set, into an entire village complete with an ice skating pond, a big old church, a train station, shoppers, carolers, and so much more.





A little ice skating pond in motion..



Love this little gazebo, though that ladder situation doesn't look so safe..



Here's Santa's toy shop with a close up of the goings on inside the window..




A little house with a close up of a couple inside..
(Yup, that's Scrooge walking by at the bottom of the frame!)




Rushing home to get out of the cold!



Santa makes a stop at a big ol' house..



And what's a Christmas village without the church? (That moon usually lights up but I think the batteries are dead. It's not always a weird orange.) ;)



So that's our village. I've been getting ideas all over for my own village when I move out after school. Is it weird that the thing I'm most excited about when it comes to having my own place is decorating for Christmas? :)

I really love the lit up snowy hills that Posie Gets Cozy has going on. And then there's the sparkly vintage dream over at A Field Journal, who ironically links back to this other post by Posie Gets Cozy where she lists really great resources for houses and such for creating a village.

So many good ideas out there. I can't wait to build my own!

Hope everyone's week is going well! I think I'm getting a cold blehh :P