Feed: Christmas Village Ideas - AggScore: 68.9

Christmas Village Scenes Friend and Family Traditions

---

Everyone loves to stop in, visit, and spend time with friends and family at Christmas time. In our busy lives there seem to be no excuses to draw from - to not shut down our hectic schedules and spend time with those we really care about.

Friends and family aside, Christmas just couldn't be Christmas at our house without the village displays. Loved by children, adults and most especially the seniors in our midst, these festive decorations add a special ambiance to the homes we visit.

Christmas villages bring back the childhood wonder of the season. We have long used these winter display decorations as part of our tradition and festivities.

Many other Christmas decorations have roots in some of the earliest Christian traditions, while others have purely pagan roots, but the village display tradition lives on from generation to generation.

While decor and accessories may have changed over time, setting up your own village scene and decorating for Christmas is exciting, fun, and often part of a family's December tradition. Your thoughts are turned to Christmas' past and hopes for the future. Many of us get so excited we'll start hanging our decorations and and displays as soon as Halloween has passed.

The Christmas season is all about spending time with the people you care about and doing those things you never seem to have time for during the year, so even though you may decorate with your immediate family, it is sometimes fun to save some of these festivities to share with dinner guests or parties.

You can work on craft projects with your friends and set up a new layout for your Christmas village together. You'd be surprised how much fun this can be. Plan ahead by setting out the boxes for your display before your guests arrive and pre-purchase any new items you might like to add this year.

Determine your location or space for the village scene. Decide your theme or create an entirely new theme, a unique decorating theme, that is created by the group. As you can see there is a lot to consider when it comes to your village display. While some love the spontaneous approach, others need structure. If you plan this together, you'll learn more about each friend or family member's creativity. If you prefer structure however, make a detailed plan first and work with your dinner guests to layout the display according to the plan.

Some last minute tips and suggestions for your Christmas Village:

Have fun setting up your display - whether you are doing this yourself or with friends and family.

Turn up the Christmas music. Carols or modern theme songs provide ambiance.

Take all of your village pieces out of storage and onto the table where they are easy to assess, clean, or rearrange - and safe from the family dog.

Check your village for any damage: cracks or chips.

Invite your friends and family in and have a festive time setting up your Christmas village.

Christmas Village Ideas

---

You can make embellishments and accessories for your Christmas village scene and make it more personal and unique. Have some fun creating decorations for your village by creating homemade ornaments for the tabletop display. Include your children or your friends at a scheduled time and everyone will begin their Christmas reminiscing journey earlier as well as get into the season sooner.

While we all have one or two homemade ornament on our trees (usually from our children, grandchildren, or other children in our lives) very few of us make our own accessories and embellish our own village scenes with such uniqueness.

Christmas crafts are beautiful enough to display on the tree, on the table, on doors and overhangs, and windows. Your Christmas village is the same! You can leave it up all year and change it with the seasons if you have or create the right accessories.

These are treasured traditions, villages that have been years in the making, houses and shops that have been handed down or given as gifts. So might be said of the memories of time spent setting up or creating these beautiful village scenes.

Many of us have fond memories of this Christmas tradition of decking the halls with family, that it is often a scheduled and shared event. Think of how the house smelled like gingerbread and cinnamon. How the children sat at the table making gifts, crafts, and cards for the special people in their lives. The carols that played or the television specials that were on - only for this special time of year.

These memories and traditions are tied up in our generations' past. Up until the mid 19th century all Christmas ornaments were handmade using whatever was easily available in that region at that time of year. Parents would make decorations out of fabric, pinecones, cedar branches and bits of wax that had been meticulously saved all year for this special day.

Around 1875 we started seeing Christmas ornaments that could be purchased in a store - but the tradition of spending time in creating unique Christmas displays lived on. Now we get together to set up Christmas village scenes and other displays that younger hands can easily manage.

Glass ornaments were first introduced from Germany. The German race was renowned for high quality craftsmanship and the Christmas decorating accessories was no exception - these pieces were truly exquisite. In short order the Germans had over 4500 molds and over 100 glass blowing workshops devoted entirely to Christmas decor.

We've come a long way since the mid 19th century with our tastes and Christmas decorating, but we certainly can't beat creating Christmas village scenes with our family as part of our own, newer, tradition of the season.

Ideas for your Christmas village display:

Fasten tiny jingle balls to the corners of your table runner if you use one for your display to give your table a little extra festive sparkle.

Paint tiny snowflakes on nearby windows to make a beautiful backdrop to your Christmas village scene (use removable glass paint perhaps with a small sparkle to it).