From the Desk of Ms. Lit Town

Many of you have heard the story about how our Villages came to be, but some have not. In a very condensed version, here is how the Villages came to be: One Christmas evening, a group of friends set off to enjoy a dinner of celebration at a small country inn nestled in a quiet river town. As they rounded a bend in the road, they saw the small, old-fashioned village decorated for the holidays. The lights, like fairies, glowed...

Collectors tend to get really excited when they hear, “Oh, that’s a limited edition.” Why does that get your blood pumping and your heart racing? Is it because you know that there will only be a set number of pieces cast and sold? Or perhaps it’s the love of the chase, calling and visiting various retailers to find a source that will have one for you. In a recent online (and very unscientific) survey of collectors we learned that most...

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...