From the Desk of Ms. Lit Town

Who else has a monster list of things to do during Halloween season? Cue the spooky music & let’s get decorating! We’re less than 100 days before Halloween and our Village artists have been preparing all year long to bring you fabulous new additions for your collection. Like you, we are “dying” to kick off all the traditions that Halloween brings.   One of those traditions is Trick or Treat Lane.  Spurred by one of our artist’s love of holiday...

Did you know that there is no time zone at the North Pole? And there are no permanent settlements there, mainly because there is no land mass, only ice sheets that range from 6 -10 feet thick. The Soviets established a research camp there in 1937 but abandoned it a year later.In the early 20th century, the North Pole was one of the last places on Earth yet to be “discovered.” That changed in 1909 when, in the same September...

We were honored and thrilled to be featured in a holiday themed segment of the CBS morning news over this past holiday season. Miss it? That's OK... you can check it out here:

An all new video on the Department 56 production process!

In 2020 Department 56 made a really tough decision, something that they hadn’t done in many years – they decided to retire a whole Village, the New England Village which was first introduced in 1987, and in 2021 they retired a second Village, Alpine Village, which had been offered since 1986. Oh, no, you say! Would this be a trend? Was this the start of the end of all Villages? The short answer is “no.” While our artists loved designing...

Over the years we have been asked this question quite a lot? Department 56 is an unusual name for a company, How did you come up with the name for products we have grown to know and love over the years? Where does the name come from? Let’s take a look at the history of our company and how the name came to be. Back in the early 1970s a talented floral designer named Ed Bazinet worked for a Minnesota...