Did the UK ever succumb to the 90s US craze for Christmas villages?

[Swalwey]

I’m British and live in the UK but was born and grew up in North America. In the 1990s my parents, along with many others, got swept up by the fashion for Christmas villages - little painted ceramic houses produced by Department 56 (I know Lemax was another brand) that lit up from the inside. They have lots of characters/figurines and lots of different themes - New England, Dickens, North Pole and so on. It was quite obviously a gimmick, sold as ‘collectors’ items’ but mass produced and as far as I know never gained any value.

My DF always liked toys, so one of the villages he created had a train track - complete with tunnel - and a stream of running water. It was spectacular but it made everyone need to pee 😂. One year I replaced all the characters with the Simpsons, he was very miffed.

They bought so many of them that they rotated their display year on year and when they died, my 3 siblings and I each had to take heaps of them and had enough to create multiple villages of our own.

My DCs were only little when my parents passed away, and the Christmas village is part of their heritage, so it’s important to them that we have our own Xmas village every year. But OMG the hassle - storing it, setting it up, putting it away. On the one hand this brings back lovely memories of my crazy folks, but on the other it reminds me of how they spent so much money on crap, useless things, when I was struggling as a student, barely able to eat and they never gave me anything because all their spare money went on buying these silly houses.

So this got me wondering whether they were ever a thing over here? Anyone else has Xmas village memories, or is it just me? None of my UK friends had them growing up.🤷🏼‍♀️

No it’s a stock image, thank goodness! Mine is on a single level and basically one long street. We recently had a major extension to the house and I didn’t tell anyone but had a long piece of joinery created to accommodate it 🤭. DPs’ main village was more three dimensional but nowhere near as claustrophobic as that picture

There is a Lego one.

people collect the items and assemble their village every year.

Yes they sell Lemax here and garden centres in particular have Christmas villages on display and for sale. But man they are expensive so no it never took off as far as I know.

Here's ours

but on the other it reminds me of how they spent so much money on crap, useless things, when I was struggling as a student, barely able to eat and they never gave me anything because all their spare money went on buying these silly houses.

My parents did a similar thing in the 90s whilst I overworked in service jobs whilst doing a demanding course.
I have teenagers at uni now and I have no idea how they did it.
Partly it was resentment and insecurity that I had the opportunity for more education therefore I would be an intellectual and look down on them. There was a lot of hoity toity fear, they were highly paid skilled working class and very keen that I should not get above myself.
I think things financially did get easier for them, their pay went up, mortgage was paid off. A chance to travel. But there's cabinets full of limited edition worthless antiques, an attic full of boxes of never displayed collectables. Coins, stamps, you name it, it became a full time buying job.
When I finally bought a house, they didn't visit for two months due to a full calender of Xmas shopping and craft fairs. One, hurtful, was just down the road.
I have kept a few bits from my dad but not much. The memories aren't there for my kids and bad for me.
So when mum finally pops her clogs I will be hiring a skip and wanging the whole bloody lot off the balcony in a big smash.

I've never known anyone who's had a Christmas village. I'm weirdly obsessed with miniature houses so I would love one! But I don't think I'd have the patience to set it all up and put it away again a few weeks later. It's bad enough doing the Christmas tree!

My aunt and uncle had one in the 90s - I remember them getting it out at Christmas .. it was quite spectacular ! They split up a few years later so I suspect my uncle got custody of the village !

I've never heard of them but it sounds like a lovely family tradition to keep going OP 💗

I got a little house from sostrene grene

We've got a small village - it's not enormous, it fits on top of the sideboard in our living room. We've built it up over 20 years.

I have a few Lemax Halloween pieces when I can get away with them, but they are the wrong scale for my 1/12 dolls houses unfortunately.

We have one, I’d never heard of it until I met DH! Ours can’t go up this year, there’s just no room with DDs stuff. We’ll hopefully have more room for it next year!

This one has got a moving train and skaters by the look of it.

www.amazon.co.uk/Konstsmide-3403-000-Christmas-Transformer-Operation/dp/B06XJ6JLJ4/ref=asc_df_B06XJ6JLJ4?mcid=52842f8647ab3be6bb5e00efe35e0f53&th=1&psc=1&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=697199546598&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=105335688408365332&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9192140&hvtargid=pla-488843608225&gad_source=1

And skiers too. I missed that

We have a Lemax Christmas American diner which we bought it in the US. We put it on display every year but don’t think we could cope with a whole village!

Always see them in garden centres and really like them but in reality I don’t really have anywhere appropriate to display it.

yes! A garden centre near us still sells tonnes of them (or at least stocks tonnes of them). We don't have them but I always admire them.

During COVID a few roads near us set up a Christmas decorations trail. You paid a PTA for a trail map and you went round, admired all the houses taking part and voted for your favourites. There was a stunning winter village one in a big bay window. I think they won.

There was a thread on MN last year with people sharing pics of theirs, I'll see if I can find it

This is it, although there's not many posts on it

www.mumsnet.com/talk/christmas/4896751-starting-a-christmas-village-display?reply=129215305

I don't have a village as I can't stand clutter and I would also find it extremely difficult to cope with storing it all. But I really love seeing them in other people's homes; there's something so cosy and fun about it, even though it's actually too cutesy for me. I tried at Christmas several years ago - I bought a small selection of Lemax buildings, a lovely little bench and some trees as well as working lamp posts, plus a couple of groups of people including dog walkers. I set it up on a window sill and...nope...it was just a bit too twee and looked all wrong in my space. So I took it all down and sold it on eBay within a week.

I'd love to see your village @Swalwey! 🎄🎄🎄

A local garden centre has a huge display of these, it must take them ages to set it all up. I do think one stand alone would be nice, but not really any more than that (for me). This display is amazing, it's like a Christmas version of model railways in terms of time, space and money...

We have a Lemax village but I'm also creating a Lego village . Small houses are everywhere

My DGM had one. Our local garden centre is full of things to add to your Christmas village so they must still be going strong.

I love them, often see them for sale in garden centres but sadly I don’t have the space for them in my house.

I know families that have elaborate nativity scenes .