This RI Native Is All About Christmas Villages & Might Have You Reconsidering Your Decorating Style

As Christmas approaches it is time to reflect on a tradition that may have fallen by the wayside. 

As networks like HGTV and DIY raise the bar of home décor (making design both more accessible and more competitive), as we strive to make our homes become sleek replicas of TV or movie sets, traditional Christmas decorations might be given a sideways glance, and not sparking that warm, merry feeling, tossed aside. 

But Christmas is a time for tradition, a time to gently look back on the year we have experienced before charging into a new year! (A new decade even…yes, I know, mathematically the new decade starts in 2021, but we’ll be saying twentysomething instead of somethingteen, so, lexically, it is a new decade!) 

Anyway, as phrases like “open space” and “perfect for entertaining” invade our lingo and collective psyches, the Christmas village seems to be on the brink of extinction. 

Mass produced, identical mischievous elves posed impishly all over the home pervade our social media feed during the holiday season. I get it, the elf is a singular item that can be played for multiple chuckles for days on end and doesn’t require a corner of the living room and can be place out of reach of the dog and doesn’t impede the flow of the many visitors we entertain during the Thanksgiving to New Years juggernaut of social obligations. 

Contrarily, the Christmas village requires space and storage and planning and endless accouterments. Back-grounds and ratios need to be figured out as well as a strategy to keep curious hands from impulsive grabbing. 

If you put in the time and effort in to display a Christmas village in your home, you have earned my admiration.  (BTW, I recently discovered village additions from the venerable holiday favorite National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation featuring the Griswold family. It was at The Gift Box in Warwick, a sprawling holiday shop open year round known for personalized ornaments.)   

At The Gift Box In Warwick

If you don't have the time or inclination to set up a village in your home, there's always La Salette Shrine or the Enchanted Village at Jordan's Furniture in Avon, MA for the nostalgia! 

About The Author

Christina is a life-long Rhode Islander who has been dedicated to mission-driven human services work. A mother of two, she recycles, composts, and runs her household with solar energy. An animal lover and a world traveler, this bon vivant has jumped out of a plane, bungee jumped (twice!), run over the Newport Bridge, swum across Narragansett Bay, and penguin plunged.