Christmas Village Tree

I’m planning to edit a video so you can see how it all worked, but for now you get the still images (since it’s Christmas time and I want to get this posted for other creators to see).

This is a project that I saw someone make last year (2021) and I have been really eager to try it out with some design choices of my own. As usual, there were some things that worked and others that didn’t work.

Before I get too far, I should mention that I love Christmas villages. There was something about them for me when I was a child, whether setting them up or just “looking” at them (I don’t think I was supposed to play with them, but I did anyway).

I think it started with a Christmas village that my Grandmother Kimball made.

I loved the whole village. It may have bothered me a little bit that the Santa and his reindeer were bigger than the village, but I played with them anyway. You can’t really tell from the picture that the first reindeer once had a little red gem to represent Rudolf. Also on that reindeer’s leg is written Wayne & Pam (my dad and mom). Then the first three reindeer had names of siblings. My grandma made these in 1979 so she couldn’t have known that my parents would actually have a full compliment of eight reindeer plus Rudolf. The sleigh has Kimballs written on it.

I had originally meant for this tree to be a safer stand for this set, but then a few other people–mainly one client–donated a new village for the tree.

As I mentioned earlier, I plan to do a video on it, but for now I’ll narrate a few details for you. I had made the center to look like a tree trunk; it’s in the shape of an octagon, and it was also meant to have all the wiring and cords running through the middle. However, when I created the cross branch supports it really took the space away. So wiring was one problem that I don’t have a solution for yet.

Also because I wanted this to be easily disassembled for the rest of the year I had to create a bigger gap for the cross branches to fit through and slide in together. Inadvertently this created an imbalance once the platforms were added. Problem number 2.

The next problem I have for it is that it really is too skinny for that train and for a more spread out village; along with some of the village being in the back, I don’t really like how it feels spatially. Even the distances from each platform are too large.

With all that, I am certain there will be future iterations on my designs. Still, regardless of those problems, I am happy this year that I get to look at something new and that my still young children get to play with it in their imaginations.

Please feel free to share any ideas or comments if you have seen other examples or think you have a solution for my problems. For now, enjoy a Merry Christmas season!