These miniature towns create a winter wonderland right in your own living room.
Learn how the Christmas village tradition startedand why it’s still so popular.
There’s a place forelaborate garlands, flameless candles, and feathery plumes protruding from Christmas trees.
Credit: Adam Albright
But, sometimes, the holiday season calls for simple, old-fashioned decorating.
Think large-bulbed lights, strung popcorn, and miniature houses displayed in a window oralong a mantel.
It’s these vintage touches that make the holidays feel homey.
Credit:Adam Albright
We first spiedChristmas villagesin the 1966 edition of BH&G’sChristmas Ideasbook.
Adam Albright
When Did the Christmas Village Tradition Begin?
The earliest known Christmas villages weren’t villages at allthey were actually small nativity scenes.
Credit: Jacob Fox
During the Renaissance, people in Italy would act out live nativity scenes to help tell the Christmas story.
The figures started to look less like biblical figures and more like characters from the local village.
In Moravia (an area of the Czech Republic), families placed large villages around the manger.
Credit: Jay Wilde
Families created these elaborate displays on their own using materials found in their homes and the surrounding countryside.
American retailers later popularized the practice across the country.
ManyGerman holiday traditions(like the Christmas tree) are staples in American Christmas culture as well.
As a result, the practice of setting up a Christmas village dwindled during the 1950s and 1960s.
Today, you could find all kinds of villages online and in stores.
Retailers carry everything from incredibly detailed villages with a strong Norman Rockwell sensibility to ultra-sleek white Christmas village houses.
