My Halloween Village

Villages made the jump from Christmas to Halloween in 1998 when Department 56 introduced their first Halloween building. Since then the art of making villages, which involves arranging miniature buildings, trees and figures into a dioramas of lights and sounds, has spread like a pox.

Many artists carve elaborate foam bases, then add scenic elements. Some painstakingly recreate lifelike naturalistic scenes down to the grass, sidewalks and streets. Others, like myself, prefer a more darkly expressionist and abstract approach. My style features distorted, unnatural scenes, jagged cliffs, odd canyons, and other otherworldly elements to create a hellish landscape. Whatever the approach, it's a wicked hobby bound only by imagination and storage space.

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I call my village HAUNTSVILLE and every year I build a new base, recycling bits and pieces from previous years. I've amassed many buildings and accessories, and I constantly rotate through my collection so its never the same set up twice.