Goodbye to Santa's Wonderland

One of the things I love about Christmas is getting out my Department 56 collection and making a little fantasy winter wonder world. This year I set up the pieces in four shelves in the bookcases that I got from my mother's house, using most of the space to make a Santa's Wonderland, with Santa's house, an ice skating rink for Santa's elves, candy cane fences, and white sparkly trees. In the remaining space I set up a snowy village scene, with a house, a church, a village square, and a village Christmas tree.

The Naughty and Nice Detective Agency was the first Department 56 piece I collected, way back before Paul was born. The eye on the top rotates around searching for naughty and nice boys and girls, and there are two detectives on foot underneath, checking names in Santa's book. This year I added the gold, red, and white trees beaded trees; I think they look quite magical.


Santa's house isn't a Department 56 piece, but something I picked up from Michael's one year. I quite like it, especially how you can look into it and see Santa's chair and Mrs. Claus making cookies for him.


The ice skating rink is pretty cool, with three elves skating around and around. Last year I took this into school and made a little display which fascinated even the 8th graders. This year I set it up at home and added the lighted Santa snowman, which changed colors as he glowed.

Next to Santa's Wonderland I placed a little village with a church and a park complete with a gazebo.

In recent years my mother gave each of her children $100 for Christmas and I usually used mine to buy something new for my villages. This year I continued that tradition and bought this cute "Let it Snow" house.

The other day I took down Santa's Wonder Land and packed it away for another year. The snow house and village square are still up, though. I wasn't quite ready to see them go, and who knows, it just may snow in the next few weeks.