Dept 56 – Learn To Be Wise

Christmas Village 2025

In motion

Everybody loves to see the action, but I needed some help to maximize the fun so my grandchildren, Sam and Annabelle, helped out.

Improved track configuration

Kel's Christmas Railroad Village 2025 — Kel’s Christmas Railroad Village 2025

Each year my fans look for what is new in the Christmas Village. Some years the changes are subtle, but not this year. The small hidden trolley diorama track of past years never worked right anyway. So this year Sam and I picked out a new trolley at the train fair and I make a new track for it farther to the front. Thanks to a gift of additional Erector pieces from Dottie’s friend Ted, I doubled the width of the Erector bridge and created a trolley line from the front of the station on the left square to the repositioned old inn on the right side. The effect is very pleasing as it connects the sides and creates some counter movement to the right-moving trains loops.

Putting it together despite hardships

Kel's Christmas Railroad 2025 in the evening i — Kel’s Christmas Railroad 2025 in the evening i

I’m thankful my difficulties are minor compared to many. However, I had a taste this year of trying to accomplish something despite obstacles. My right knee was giving me problems that slowed down the process of construction. Kneeling was painful. So I had to use a kneeler and make sure I grouped the work to minimize ups and downs. In addition, there were the usual things here and there that didn’t work right and had to be figured out. Plus adding something new takes time too. The bottom line is that what I did in 10 days about eight years ago, took a month this year. And that was with enlisting help from my grandson and a local Scout to do some of the toting. It was a sobering experience. Thankfully with some medical help my knee is improving

A new ceramic house

With the new design, I needed one more Dept 56 building. I found the perfect fit online in a New England Town Hall. According to the accompanying note, it was going from one grandfather’s Christmas display to another grandfather’s Christmas set. It looks just like it belongs along a village square in an old CT or MA village. You can spot it in the main square next to the church.

The details

I love to look at and take pictures of the small vignettes which make up the larger scenes: a granddaughter running into the arms of her grandfather who has just arrived at the train station; a policeman directing traffic while a big truck unloads drainage pipe behind the Lionel train store; a father-son team building a woodpile to feed the fireplace. These and many more draw my attention into the scenes and make my eyes linger long in the details.

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Leaving it up

When you put up something like this, you don’t want to take it down. But I do. If I didn’t it would have stagnated years ago not to mention gathered dust. Being forced to rebuild drives creativity. Albeit, the creative pace is checked both by my pocketbook and by my need for some continuity in construction. So I have a goal to get it stored away before Easter. A couple times, it just made it. This year – we’ll see.

“Wheels are rolling!”

Open House Season

It has been a joy for my wife and I to welcome about forty people to our home in the various open house events that we have hosted. We love to have our friends and neighbors visit anyway and the Christmas village set provides the attraction. JoAnne and generous friends provide goodies and everyone has a good time. It is the very most fun when a couple little folks are present and I am down on the floor with them helping them run the trains. However, the Lionel LionChief system is so simple that preschoolers can run trains with a minimum of instruction. But the children quickly learn the older system too.

Dawn view

Vignettes make it interesting

When I design the set, I try to arrange mini scenes within the large one. This is a big part of the fun of the set-up. This year, I was gifted two trucks with headlights by Kris Hayden. That provided an essential prop for the featured picture scene with the pick-up truck being used to illuminate the church manger scene while the outdoor carol sing is in progress.

Christmas village Hardware store vignette

The second truck is seen in this scene of workers unloading from it after dark at the hardware store. I hope the driver in the red car isn’t too impatient.

Here’s another group of carolers stopping at a home like our youth group used to do when I was young. Perhaps an elderly Grandma is huddled by the woodstove for which the man and boy are splitting and stacking wood.

This piece (my wife’s favorite) makes its own vignette but I enhance it with the hot-chocolate stand in front and the tourist bus. Also (not shown) there is an outhouse off to the right partially hidden in the pines.

American Girl dolls visit

Molly (in braids) and her friend Samantha visited the set this week! Our daughter’s Mom-in-law, Sue Stater, enjoys American Girl dolls and often brings Molly and a friend along when she stops by to visit. It’s another way to have fun with a Christmas village.

Do we ever have wrecks?

Since it is obvious that my display has limited access to the back of the lower tracks, I am usually asked about wrecks. Do the trains roll? How do I handle it? Of course we have wrecks–and sometimes in the back where things get difficult. I do my best to prevent them by good track preparation. But they happen. For example, this year a car’s weak coupler opened in the back and I didn’t see the separated train as I was talking. The engine came around and then smashed into the back of the stalled train, derailing it in the worst spot. I had to enlarge a hidden access hole and haul the engine, tender, and derailed car up through it. I was then able to push the remainder of the train to a spot where I could reach it. And currently, Thomas the Tank engine is still under the platform having been rolled clear of the track by an enthusiastic young engineer. But overall, we’ve had a pretty trouble-free run this year! My philosophy is that if it is too fancy or expensive for kids to play with, it is not something I want to own. I find that if I do have something I consider too fragile, it just doesn’t get run.