Christmas traditions -- part 3

My whole family knows what I'm referring to when I say "the Village". No, it's not Greenwich. I'm talking about the Christmas village that Grandma began collecting in her teens (?) or twenties (?).

When we were kids, we always had to line up on the floor in front of it and get our picture taken. Back then, it was on a large, plywood quarter circle just a few inches off the floor sticking out from the corner of Grandma's living room.

When I got into middle school and high school, we were allowed to help her set it up every year. This continued on into college. Then, when I was a junior in college and Grandma had started to consider moving to a retirement community, I drove up to her house to help her pack all the Christmas decorations up. When I was done, she said, "Okay, now load it into your car. It's yours."

I'm so thankful to have had one more year to set it up with her after that...my senior year in college when we set it up at Mom and Dad's. That year, we transitioned it to include artificial greenery instead of the fresh cut cedar that Grandma always cut and placed in jars of water lining the outskirts of the village. We also elevated it to a smaller table rather than the giant floor platform.

These days, it gets set up on top of the piano at our house. One day, I'll get the platform back out, but for the safety of those memories I hold so dear, I've had to keep it up away from tiny hands the past few years and now, the dog. It is slightly smaller than it was at Grandma's, so we have to pick and choose what to include from year to year due to the smaller space.

This is not the traditional Christmas village you see in the store with all buildings the same style and scale. This village is comprised of little items my Grandma made or found or was given over the years. Some things match in style and size, some don't. We don't care, though, because each piece holds a memory. And we loved joking about the "giants" on the church steps who towered over the town and the enormous deer who resided in the woods who were several times larger than the people of the village. There are a few staple items that get included every year, regardless of space.

There's the painting that my uncle came home crying about as a child because he said it was ugly...Grandma quickly made it into a feature in the village...the waterfall. There is also the set of toothpick fences made by another of her sons.

There are the little metal skaters that were shipped to my great-aunt, I think as a gift for my grandma, I'm pretty sure long before my dad was even a thought.

We use the box from the skaters to prop up the church in the middle of town. I can't tell you the year it was shipped because there is no postmarked date on it, but, if you look closely, you'll see it was before zip codes were required for shipping. It was also before Dad's family moved to the Thumb from Detroit, which took place in the late 60s.

Then there's the frosted house that always holds Santa Claus (at least in my book...Sam likes to move him from house to house any chance he gets!):

And we also pick and choose at least a few of the Hallmark ornaments that my great-aunt's German Shepherd, Keisha, gave to Grandma every Christmas for several years.

Every year, I put this up while cherishing the memories of my Grandma and also feeling a little guilty that I was the lucky grandchild that ended up with it. No matter what, this will always, always be a special part of our holiday traditions.