Gloria’s Christmas Village

on display at the Shilo:

GLORIA’S CHRISTMAS VILLAGE STORY

 About ten years ago I found myself with too much time on my hands.  Wondering through a craft store one day I saw these little houses that were just waiting to be painted.  I had never tried anything like this before, and my artsy crafty talents were limited. I bought a package of different sized brushers, a few bottles of ceramic paint, and two houses.  I started my project as soon as I got home.  It took a real steady hand and patience, but I loved it.  I would spend about 15 hours per house, so would space it out over 3 days.  After painting them I took them outside and put a glaze or seal over them, sprinkling the sparkly stuff on while they were still sticky.

I didn’t know what I was going to do with these little treasures, so I just packed them away. I guess I had painted 16 to 18 of the little gems, it was getting close to Christmas so I scrambled around and found a partial piece of plywood.  All of a sudden I’m excited and ready to go. I found a store that had all kinds of trees and accessories.  I bought lots of small lights and the first village was born.  My neighbors were so impressed that all of a sudden I had people calling to see the village.  Someone called the local newspaper ( The Wenatchee World) and an article with pictures was in the newspaper just before Christmas.  Everything started to snowball.

My Christmas’s were never the same after that first little village.  Each year I painted more houses, bought more trees and accessories.  The village continued to grow as did the groups of people coming through my home to see it. 

The last 5 years the village was almost out of control as it took up a whole room which meant storing furniture away to make room for it.  I hung white icicle lights all the way around the room- the project started the middle of October and hopefully was finished by Thanksgiving.  I kept soft Christmas music playing all the time anyone would come to see it.  Of course I decorated the rest of the house to blend in the village, lit lots of candles and tried to have cookies and candy on hand.

 I’m proud to say the little endeavor I started with 2 houses became a joy to me.  I met some wonderful people who came back every year as I tried to make it different each time.

The last time I set it up was 2006 and I knew than that I couldn’t do it again.  It was just too much work for this “old lady.”  It makes me sad that I won’t have it again but makes me happy to know how beautiful it was each year and how much others enjoyed it.