Department 56 buildings have been a favorite of mine for a long time, even though I'm a fairly new collector. My first big question was which village line to collect, and it took me a couple of years to settle on one. The second question was how to display the buildings. I also wanted to leave almost all of my displays up year-round. I started with the New England Village and it's still my main focus, probably because I love New England so much! I settled on New England Village during a summer 2000 visit with my cousin, Bev, in Maine. We visited a wonderful shop in Belfast that had all the different villages on display, and at last I could decide which look I liked best.

Since then I've branched out into Christmas in the City, Storybook Village (for my granddaughter), and a few North Pole pieces for the holidays. Those pieces get displayed quite differently from the New England Village, and they come with their own particular display challenges. The photos and instructions that follow show and explain how I landscaped the displays and made room for the cords and transformers on shelves that measure 36" long, 11 3/4" deep, and 12" high.

Whenever I can make something by hand, rather than buying it, I do. I get great enjoyment out of making the displays. I also try to keep the Department 56 people figurines to a minimum. They are really attractive, but I do not like the gross disproportion between the figures and the houses. As my husband says, they all look like Paul Bunyans compared to the houses. HO scale people are more in keeping with the scale of the houses, but they don't show well, particularly in a bookshelf display that has a lot of shadow. Most of the people you see in my displays are Lemax, which tend to be a little smaller, though they too are out of scale.

You'll notice I've painted the bases of many of my people and accessories to blend with the terrain, because nobody will ever convince me a collectible is a smart financial investment. Quite the opposite! The people in my village are sensible enough not to stand in every patch of snow they come across, and that called for a little paint and glue work.

Finally, I want to thank the other Village Collectors on the Department 56 email list who answered my endless questions about things I couldn't work out on my own. In particular, thanks to Judi Weers, who kindly helped me understand her water techniques, and to my cousin, Bev, who shared great tips on items to use for what I wanted to achieve. Last fall she gathered New England autumn leaves for me, soaked them in glycerin, and punched them out with a mini punch so I could scatter them through my village fall scenes. That's love and family wrapped up in one person! :^)

If something I did isn't clear, email me at [email protected] and I'll do my best to help. Hopefully the instruction photos and short commentary will answer most of your questions. On the other hand, I'm always on the lookout for tips and tricks myself, so if you have something worth sharing with others, let me know and I'll post it here in the tips section.