From the Desk of Ms. Lit Town

Village artist Scott Enter has designed hundreds of Village lit buildings, accessories and general animated pieces since he started working at Department 56 in 1990 as a photographer. His first design project, The Original Snow Village "Greenhouse" (56.54020, 1991-1995), was planned as an accessory but Scott, who loves to tinker with technology, figured out how to make it light. Scott can be credited with upgrading numerous additions to The Original Snow Village, Snow Village Halloween and other Villages over the...

Import these MP3 sound files to your music manager software and copy to your MP3 player device.     Village Sound File - 21 MBClick HERE (Right Click - Save Target As...) to download our Village sound file for your Village MP3 Speakers.   Halloween Sound File - 8 MBClick HERE (Right Click - Save Target As...) to download our Halloween sound file for your Village MP3 Speakers.

A lot of what is produced for the Department 56 Villages is the result of research, gleaning ideas from the internet and the fertile imaginations of our Village artists. Villages like the North Pole (nobody's actually been there), Mickey's Merry Christmas Village, and the Grinch Village all are easy because they have no guidelines to follow. But recreating a Village that represents Main Street America in the 1950's and 1960's (The Original Snow Village) requires much more. The artists at...

As many of you may already know, Department 56 has been in gift business since 1976 when The Original Snow Village was first introduced and since then we have developed other Villages as well as many giftware lines that are popular among our collectors. It seems like a long time to us, but there are other companies who have offered giftware a lot longer. Recently, “Gifts and Decorative Accessories” magazine, a leader in our industry came up with a subjective...

Ever wonder how Santa spends his “off-season”? Like many of us, Santa does get a little down time to pursue his favorite activities – hunting, fishing, and gardening. And after all the years he’s been in this business, he’s entitled to a good long vacation! With his busy fall and winter schedule the jolly old elf does find time to get out and enjoy a little fly casting and trout fishing at some of his favorite fishing spots. Christmas Lake...

The movie “Nightmare Before Christmas” first released in 1993 has, over the years, acquired a huge cult following of fans of both Halloween and Christmas. Creator Tim Burton, a Burbank, California native expressed that “anytime there was Christmas or Halloween, it was great. It gave you some sort of texture all of a sudden that wasn’t there before.” It never left him.There was always a thought in the back of his mind to expand on the dual theme.1982 Burton, who...