Deck the Halls-Week 3

Most of our Christmas decorations now involve our large collection of Department 56 Christmas houses, but we still have a few favorite items that we display every year. The Father Christmas that I made a number of years ago always has his place of honor. He's built on a large styrofoam cone and wire apertures. His gown, hat and sack are sewn, then saturated with fabric stiffener and draped on the form. Once he's dry, which takes forever, he's then given a liberal coat of gesso and painted. The final step is to apply an antiquing solution. I really look forward to bringing him out every year.
We always decorate our mantle, and with the exception of new battery operated candles this year, it pretty much has stayed the same for the last 2 years. The wreath is dotted with tiny white lights, which weren't on for this picture.

Most of our Christmas houses are in the huge wall unit in the living room. While I'm not terribly fond of this monstrous piece of furniture, it does serve its purpose this time of the year. Our builder drilled holes in all of the shelves to accomodate the wiring.

There's a city scene on the dresser of our master bedroom.
We also have a second tree in here, and it's a nice spot to watch a Christmas movie while my husband's watching hockey!

New this year is a scene on the small sideboard in our dining room. Victoria Station is a large piece, and really didn't fit any where else.

We even have city houses on top of our kitchen cabinets. The builder installed outlets up there to accomodate the plugs.

Each shelf in the living room wall unit it a complete street scene. They come alive at night when the lights go on...

We even have street lights.

There is a vignette that centers around skaters on the frozen river...

and another with a Vicar standing in front of his cathedral.

There is the obligatory English castle...and a housewife buying her Christmas turkey...or is that a goose???And then there are the pubs. We have several.All of the streets are heavily populated with people running their Christmas errands or doing their jobs. In the scene below, there are children dragging home the yule log.

I hope you've enjoyed this brief tour of our Dickens Village streets. Next week I'm thinking of taking you on a tour of the 'City'.

Now please visit Susan at Thoughts from over the Rainbow. She's our hostess for Deck the Halls, and she'll have Mr. Linky up, running and ready to take you on a fabulous tour through homes decorated for the holidays.