As I type this, it is snowing out. Yay the first snow of the season! There are Christmas Carols on the radio and my kids are setting up their Fischer-Price Little People® Christmas village. We started the collection when my daughter was little. It was purely in our own interests, but it has developed into one of my favorite Christmas traditions.

When we first got together, my soon to be Mother-In-Law started a collection of Christmas in The City from Department 56® for A-Man and I. The buildings are made of porcelain, beautifully detailed and very breakable. The thinking was, if Fish had her own village, she’d leave ours alone and for the most part this was true. Mim was a different story. As a toddler, he had an almost magnetic attraction to all that was breakable, so we left the grown up village in the attic and focused instead on the Little People®

the years, we’ve added new pieces as they have become available, to the point that we now need an 8 foot table to hold everything. For a few years, Fischer-Price didn’t add any new pieces, so I was pleased and surprised to see the addition of “A Visit From Santa” this year.

Each piece has one electronic piece, that chimes a tinny Christmas jingle and flashes lights when provoked. That part I could do without, but it is so far outweighed by the benefits. I live with it.
We install the batteries (reluctantly) and leave it to the kids to set up. Through out its annual appearance, it will get deconstructed and reconstructed many many times.

I love listening to the kids make up stories about what is happening in Christmas at any given moment. It really brings out their imaginations and at times give me insight into what is going through their minds.

As time passes, I’m sure they’ll outgrow it, and we’ll once again set up Christmas in the City, but I plan on hanging on to these pieces in the hopes that someday my grand kids will enjoy them just as much (yeah, I do plan a head).

In the mean time, I’ll try and get you a tour of the Christmastown before the season ends.

Fischer-Price also offers a nativity themed set and a Hanukkah celebration set. Firemom wrote a great post chronicling her boys playing with the nativity set.