LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION
My homage to Lionel trains. This display features an actual 1950s vintage 027-scale train (like the one in the photo with my father) and a surprise vignette inside the revolving display.
10
VillageD-Lights
Winter 2013-2014
over the roof and the whole front yard. On some evenings, I even played Santa! For three years running, the display took first place in the City of Phoenix Electric League’s annual Christmas display lighting contest. Then the energy crisis hit. No lighted outdoor Christmas displays! The house was dark! Humbug! Before it was OK to once again put up outdoor Christmas lights, I moved my village indoors to our church’s great meeting hall, where a full-scale musical production was played out in and around the buildings. The original play and the village set were big hits! With Christmas lights back in fashion, the buildings were refurbished, new ones were added, and the outdoor village returned to my own front yard, where our home became known as the “Christmas House.” This 3/4-scale village won awards and recognition from “Good Housekeeping” and “Woman’s Day” magazines, “USA Today,” and the local newspapers and TV news stations as well. In addition to the scale buildings, some of which had furnished interiors, there were animated dolls, teddy bears, G- and 1/10th-scale trains, and more than 30 Christmas trees with thousands of lights and my own version of Real Plastic Snow. Sadly, the outside village has been retired, and it will no longer grace our front yard. My attention has shifted from outside back to inside… not only in our own house, but also in the village displays I have had the pleasure of building for others. I have featured them in past columns, and I will continue to share new projects with you. In reading this column, I hope that your own Christmas village memories have come to mind. And, as always, that you find an idea here that you can use to incorporate into your own village scene—indoors or out! Have a story you want to share, a comment or a question? Please write to me at jms56villager@aol.com. Until next time, I wish you and yours, a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year…