I Will Honour Christmas In My Heart

I will honour Christmas in my heart,
and try to keep it all the year.
I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future.
The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.
I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!

~ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Victorian Tree and Village in the Living Room, 2019

 Welcome to my Christmas Blog, A Debbie-Dabble Christmas!!
I am so happy that you decided to stop by my Christmas Blog....

Today, we are moving into the Living Room.....

I will be sharing my Victorian Tree and Village in this post.....

But first, I would like to Thank Roseann, over at This Autoimmune Life, for choosing my post, Christmas in the Kitchen, Tree and Hutch, from last week's Snickerdoodle Create Bake and Make Link Party!!!!
Thanks so much, Roseann!!

Please stop by and link up to this lovely party!!!

I was invited to link this post up to Terri's Christmas Trees on Parade Blog Hop which she is hosting over on her Christmas Blog, Christmas Tree Lane!!

I chose this Tree to feature as part of the Parade of Christmas Trees because this Tree is what I consider our "main" Tree even though I have many more Trees throughout the house.....
 It is the largest and most prominent when you first enter our home.....

It is a 7 foot slim Tree that I will be using year round and decorating for the different Seasons and Holidays............

Here it is when it was decorated for Autumn......
After Halloween,  I stripped it down to the white lights......

When I was in Target, I saw these LED red ,green and white lights.......
Many years ago, I had used red and green and white lights on this Tree before I changes to all LED lights so I was thrilled to see they had them in LED......

I forgot to take a picture of the Tree with just the lights on.......

I also decided to do something a little different with the beaded garland this year......
 I had green beaded garland from when I used to do a St. Patrick's Day Tree which I no longer do anymore so I decided to wrap it around the gold and white beaded garland that I have used on this Tree for years.....
 I also use a red and green beaded garland.....
 I then added red and green ornaments that I tucked inside the Tree.....
 My HINT for decorating a Tree is putting the garland on first and then adding plain colored ornaments to the inside of the tree as a filler....And I decorate the Tree without the lights because it makes it easier to see where to place things........And I usually tuck in some sort of floral picks to add to the fullness of the Tree

 I started to hang my collection of Victorian styled ornaments......
 Some I made...
 Some were gifted to me and many I bought on Clearance after Christmas......
 It has taken me many years to collect these vintage and Victorian styled ornaments.....

 Next, I tucked gold floral picks into the Tree.......
 And red and white striped candle and gold candle ornaments.......
 In Victorian times before electricity, they lit their Trees with candles that they burned only for a short time on Christmas Eve.....

The candle ornaments are meant to harken back to those Victorian times....
You can see the red and green lights on the Tree.....
 The above picture was taken in the day time.....

And this picture was taken in the evening......
 The top of the Tree is topped off with a bow I made from ribbon that has red and white candles on it just like the ornaments on the Tree......
 Along with a gold finial topper......

Gold florals picks are tucked into each side of the Tree.......
 And an Angel ornament is hung close to the top of the Tree......

There is a bird ornament on the Tree because my Mother always said that it was Good Luck to hang a Bird on your Christmas Tree......
 I am going to let the pictures do the talking.....
 I am really happy that I added the red and green colored lights to the Tree this year......
 I set up my Lemax Village underneath this Tree on the platform that my dad built for me 41 years ago when Joe and I first got married.......
 My Dad always set up the Tree on a platform and would create a little village with some Plasticville pieces.....

 This is a photo of the Tree in our Living Room when I was a child.....
My Dad made that platform too.......

I have the Red Barn and animals and the blue and white cottage that were under my parents Tree along with some other pieces I picked up at a flea market.....
  I have them displayed in the upstairs sitting room.....
 The chalk figures were my Mother's as a child......She would have turned 100 years old this year.....

I started to buy my Village in 1981 when my son was born and Lemax first came out with a Village.....
Most of my houses are from the 80's and are dated on the bottom......
 I set up the Village a bit differently this year.....

Instead of putting the church here on what I call the mountain, I moved the Lighthouse over here.....
 Each piece has a special meaning to our family......
 I bought the lighthouse because at the time, we went on vacation every year to Wildwood, NJ. and would take a day trip to Cape May and we once climbed to the top of the Cape May Lighthouse!!
In the village below.......
A Country Store because of my love of shopping.....
A Post Office.....
  Ironically, I bought this Post Office before Joe became a letter Carrier for the United States Post Office.......
 Maybe it was a premonition of things to come!!
 Yes, that is a Wegman's store!!!!
 Before I tell you about Wegman's, let's look at the park....
 I placed a Plasticville fence all around the platform just like the fence that my Dad had built for his platform all those years ago.....
I have a string of battery operated fairy lights strung along the fence and through the village.....
 One year, Wegman's had Lemax make a special edition piece of their store.....

I bought it a few years ago because Joe was always there shopping......
 Little did I know then that he would be working there part time when he retired!!!
 Another premonition maybe?????
 The blue building is Joseph's Seafood.......
 I bought this because Joe is known for making quite a tasty lobster tail and makes it for special occasions and on New Year's Eve every year.....
Carrington Department Store....
 Again for my love of shopping even though I think Joe is more of a shopper than I am lately....

And the Train station was bought because in the 80's there was a refurbished train station turned into a restaurant and night club that we used to go to.....
  Over on the mountain on this side of the platform.......

Instead of putting the lighthouse here like I did other years, I moved the Church and Queen Anne Victorian here.....
 I bought the church because church has always been important to us.....
 And this Queen Anne Victorian with a wrap around porch is the house of my dreams.....
 Maybe in my next lifetime.....
 So you see........... this village holds special meanings to me......
 And I have said this for many years now but as I lay on this platform assembling this Village, I envision my Dad doing the same thing when I was a child........
 And I can hear him say "That a girl!!"

So I will continue to set up this village every Christmas until I can no longer physically do so......

I hope you enjoyed seeing my "Main" Tree and the village underneath it and hearing why I chose each piece......

It takes one day to do the Tree and about 4 hours ( a half a day) to do the Village..

I was invited to link this post up to Terri's Christmas Trees on Parade Blog Hop which she is hosting over on her Christmas Blog, Christmas Tree Lane!!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!
Click here to enter


I hope you will visit the others who are sharing their Christmas Trees as part of Terri's Christmas Trees on Parade Blog Hop!!

And I hope you will stop by to visit again soon!!

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......

I am linking up to these parties:


Happy Holidays Link Party


 MONDAY 
Inspire Me Monday
Love Your Creativity Link Party
Busy Monday
Celebrate Your Story Link Party!!

Ducks in a Row Wonderful Wednesdays Blog Hop
Sizzle into Summer Party
Talk of the Town Party
Party in Your PJ's
Waste Not Wednesday
A Gathering of Friends Link Party, every 2nd and 4th Tuesday

THURSDAY
Vintage Charm
Home and Garden Party Thursday
Share Your Style Thursday Link Up Party
Inspired Creations Linky Party
Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop 
Grace at Home Party

FRIDAY
Friday Features Linky Party
Friday Favorites
Home Matters Linky Party
Flaunt It Fridays
 Funtastic Friday
Farmhouse Friday

 SATURDAY
Saturday Sparks
Pink Saturday-Anything Goes!!
Best of the Weekend Party

SUNDAY
Snickerdoodle Sunday
Silver Pennies Sunday
Happiness is Homemade Linky Party

Please take some time to visit these terrific hosts and all those joining in on the fun!

9 comments:

  1. OOO! I bet this tree is amazing in person. I wish the camera acted more like my eye! I love that you showed us samples of the tree in other seasons. This is a wonderful Christmas Trees on Parade post!

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  2. Your tree is gorgeous. I love all the stories and meanings as well as your decorating style. My husband finally put our tree up this morning. I have a house full of grandchildren who wanted to decorate it. I got out all the unbreakables for them to go to work on the bottom third and they lost interest about two minutes in. Meanwhile, they have been "rearranging" my village, which I have on top of a shelf. I have two items set aside for gluing tonight. I picked up my village one piece at a time at the local Big Lots. I do not mind gluing the pieces; they enjoy being able to touch it.

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  3. I LOVE your handmade victorian Christmas tree Debbie. You did a great job making the ornaments. I love them.
    I hope you have a great week and are enjoying the holiday season. Julie xo

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  4. At my house, every village piece would either be played with by the cat or eaten by the Baby Grand!

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  5. I absolutely love how you set up your village, I never know how to display mine! Thank you so much for sharing your talents with us at the Creative Muster Link Party. Looking forward to seeing what you share next week! Pinned

    Merry Christmas 🎄
    Robin | Fluster Buster

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  6. Your Victorian tree and village are charming! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm

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  7. I love your village and the memories associated with it. Adorable pieces.

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  8. I love your village and I love hearing all the stories behind the pieces.

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  9. Debbie, the love and care you take with your decorations always inspires me. You're truly amazing! I love the village under your tree--what a lovely welcome to your home!

    Thanks so much for joining the Grace at Home party at Imparting Grace. I'm featuring you this week!

    ReplyDelete

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