North Pole Village Lights

Although the Department 56 North Pole Series buildings and factories are internally lit, if you want to be able to see details of your elves and other accessories, provide some additional ambient lighting. Department 56 already provides you with several options in the form of street lamps.

We like to be different, so we run a string or two of white (non-blinking) lights through out the village. These will then get covered with buffalo snow (see Tip #3) and lit up. The glow of the lights throught the buffalo snow, and shimmering off of the snow flakes (see Tip #3 also) make it seem as though the snow is glistening in the moonlight .

Hot Chocolate and Smores

This is a compliment to Tip #2.

Make sure you

s p r e a d

o u t

y o u r

a c c e s s o r i e s.

Once you have a large enough space to display your lighted houses, don’t go overboard and stuff every available space with accessories.

Yes the gum drop path is cute and the candy cane lights are adorable, but if your village is packed with paths, people, streetlights, elves, reindeer, mini-shops, and more elves, it will be so busy you won’t notice any of it.

This is a village, not a city (that’s a different Dept 56 Series) where everyone (elves included) have something to do and somewhere to go. Try to make it as realistic as possible, this is not a shopping mall so don’t have everyone congregated in a single area. Place people near and around every building and make sure to spread them evenly through out the village.

Only when every piece has its own space, can their detail and charm be seen and admired.

When setting up you village display, start with a fresh layer of blanket snow. The blanket snow will not only cover your table top, but it also provides an appropriate setting for your winter village. As an added bonus, once you decide where your buildings will be placed, you can hide the cords under the snow blanket (simply cut a slit in the blanket and feed the cord/light through). If you’re looking to be really creative and want to add an extra dimension to your village, you can hide books (or build shelves) to provide some height to your layout. All of your artificial landscaping is easily hidden underneath the blanket snow.

Once your village is set up, it’s time to add the Buffalo snow. Unlike the blanket snow, buffalo snow is very fluffy (like cotton balls) and gives the village the look of being covered in freshly fallen snow.

Also, if you decide to use a string of lights to add more ambience to your village (see tip#5), the layer of buffalo snow will help to hide the lights.

Finally, one of the most beautiful things about freshly fallen snow, is how the sunlight sparkles on its surface. For that extra sparkle, we use buffalo snow snowflakes. This is similar to white and silver glitter which gets sprinkled not only over the buffalo snow, but also no the trees and village roof tops.

The multiple layers of snow will give the overall impression of a winter wonderland to your North Pole series village display.

For our display, the table I use is 66″ long by 30″ deep, on which we display 8 lighted buildings and 1 accessory mountain (which occupies about the same space as a lighted house). This works out to ~1 1/2 sq ft per lighted building.

This gives us plenty of room to lay out our M&M and Gum Drop paths and distribute our elves (and other accessories) without the village looking like Rockerfeller Center when the Christmas Tree is being lit.

The Department 56 North Pole series village display combines beautifully crafted and detailed buildings, with more highly detailed (and very adorable) accessories, which should be admired from all sides. This will be even more important when they are lit up, since spreading them out will give the village a more subtle glow. If the buildings are too close together, their charm and warmth will be lost.

The value of your Department 56 North Pole series village display is more than just the beautifully crafted and detailed buildings, it also represents family memories from years past, and many years to come.

With this in mind, do not simply lay a piece of wood on top of some books, or use a cheap, light, aluminum card table. Anything that is easily tipped over is a disaster waiting to happen (no matter how many times you tell the kids to be careful).

I use a heavy, old, dining room table that i picked up a few years ago at a garage sale. Not only is it solidly built, with leg braces to keep it steady, but the two end extensions have come in handy as we’ve added more buildings and accessories.

Not only are these buildings and accessories beautiful, but they are family memories that can be passed on to your children (my kids have already claimed their favorites, and they’re only 8). So protect your memories, and your investment, and make sure your village sits on a sturdy table, or other platform that is not easily knocked over.

The North Pole series holds endless opportunities for you to create the village of your imagination. Do you envision whimsical factories making M&Ms, Yummy Gummy Gum Drops, Snow Globes, and everything that’s needed for a joyous Christmas?

How about a village that’s a little more kid friendly? Every child wants to build an igloo out of snow, but how about an igloo sitting high atop a tree? In Elf Land, that’s known as the Frostbite Tree House Day Care. Children also need to remember that Santa is always watching, or at least his elves are, and the Naughty or Nice Detective Agency always has their eyes open, whether you’re sleeping or awake.

Although Santa and Mrs. Claus are the most well known residents of the North Pole, there simply wouldn’t be a Christmas without the elves. These unsung heroes of Christmas take care of everything from making the toys to decorating the trees, and even tending to the reindeer. So if the elves are your favorite residents of the North Pole, your village can be transformed into a magical Elf Land, with just a few select buildings and whimsical accessories. After all, elves are people too, and they love to eat Smores, and funnel cake, go hiking and cut down their own Christmas trees, go ice skating and have fun just as much as anyone else.

The variety of accessories available with the North Pole series and Elf Land is not just limited to elves. There are also a wide variety of trees, small kiosks (selling funnel cake, etc), street lamps, and walk ways made of gum drops, M&Ms, and even peppermint swirls.

So whether or not your vision of the North Pole is that of hustle and bustle in many cozy lighted buildings and fanciful factories or of elves having fun in a magical land of gum drop trees and peppermint paths, the Department 56 North Pole series and Elf Land will have something for you.