Thread: Ceramic Village

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I am curious as to how many of you have a indoor ceramic Halloween Village?

I have one that grew and grew until I made the announcement to everyone that I will buy no more. I have it set up on three different levels so that you can see all the buildings and little details.

At the widest it is 5 feet wide and extend over 5 feet in depth. I will try and post some pictures. However the photos I have are the pre-fog pictures. I addes some white batting that made great fog around the buildings.

Try this link - http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...5ZsXHA&notag=1

Oh, wow. Are they Department 56? A mix of different brands? Did you paint any pieces yourself? Please tell me how to make one without going broke!

TuzlaRuja,
They are all LeMax with a couple of Christmas accessories. I buy them at 40% off at Michael's or waith for them to get marked down at the end of Halloween. I made the bases from pink styrofoam in different depths. Then with a box cutter I added beveled edges and an open grave in the cemetery. Then I painted them all with gray latex paint. I added moss from the craft store for good looking unkept lawns and turkey grit or bird gravel for trails and roads.
The Christmas accessories are "uglified". White fence painted black, and items that have snow on them are painted green to resemble moss! Any Christmas wreaths are painted black like a funeral wreath!
I hope this helps.

WOW! That's fantastic!

Could someone give me a bit more insight into the Halloween villages? This is one area I've yet to delve to far in to. I've read something here about "Department 56"and "Spooky Village" are these brands or just nicknames?

Thanks in advance for anyone's help! I appreciate it!

And jbrimaco -- your set up is just gorgeous!!! I love it! (And I aspire to have something like that one day!)

DeadEnd,
Thank you.
Spooky Village is LeMax. Cheaper that Dept. 56. I am always into price. I hope that helps. I would suggest you buy one or two building at a time and plan your layout. When I started there weren't a lot of buildings and accessories. Now there are a lot to choose from. Enjoy but plan. They do take up some space.

I am enchanted and intrigued! A few more questions, if you don't mind answering:

What's up with the nuns? Are they taking the child away from the town?

Where did you get the hearse?

Did you see the animated funeral parlor at Michael's this year? They even had a small animated crematorium that pulled a little body inside and then had flickering lights for fire.

Is there a way you can send the bigger pictures to my email? PM me if you can. Thanks!

Thank you so very much for the information jbrimaco! Is LeMax usually found at Michael's and other larger craft stores?

I appreciate your help so much!

Actually the name of the collection is called "Spookytown" by Lemax and yes it is cheaper than Dept. 56 Halloween Items. The biggest difference is the buildings and the people are smaller. They work well together if you have a larger village and can use the people and accessories in the back. I have used a few of the newer or larger houses in my village. I prefer D56 because its pieces are so well done, however Spookytown pieces are starting to rivel them in my opinion. If you live near a Michaels or Menards then you can find great deals on them. If you dont then here is a website that sells Spookytown as well as Dept 56 Halloween Village. http://www.houseoftam.com/ These people are wonderful. I purchase all of my trees, moss, tombstones, fences and other misc accessories that I would pay double for from D56. If you ever want any help with your village i can recommend tools and methods for making your village more realistic. I did my first one last year and though it isnt everything i want it to be yet I think its a pretty good one. Please let me know what you think. http://www.sinisterspace.com/profile...=gallery&id=99 This is some of my pictures from last year and my new witch for this year. I got those potion bottles at Michaels. All of my bases are made from stryofoam and covered with paint and moss. I created the entire thing with styrofoam even the cliffside. I am thinking of redoing the whole thing next year. It is curretly in an L-shape. I cant get back far enough in my basement to take a complete picture of the whole thing. I combined 2 4X8 pieces of plywood to make an Lshape and then then added another 4X4 piece on the end where the cemetary is to make it a 12X8 L-shape that is 4ft wide. As JBRIMACO said it does take up a lot of space when you get to something as large as mine, but i started out with a couple of small vinettes like on my entertainment center or on the coffee table. I was just lucky enought to find house of tam, they have layaway and Noel and Theresa are super nice people. I hope this helps.

Turtle2778,
Very nice set up. The great thing about these are the kids that see it one year ask about the next year. It is great to build those Halloween memeories.

Yes i totally agree. I had a huge open house this year and had a costume party to have all of the people in my neighborhood come and see what the heck im doing when i start bringing orange totes to my house in August. Every year someone asks if we are moving, because we take out our couch and TV and stuff like that. We have a family room in our basement, but no where to put the stuff at halloween so out it goes until after. I like adding new things and having people try to guess the new one.