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.🤷🏼♀️