In 1994, Kathleen Favrot Van Horn bought her first porcelain Christmas building â a snow-topped Santaâs Workshop by Department 56 â and displayed it on a table in her entrance hall.
Today, her collection covers nine tables and half of her living room. It includes 101 buildings, around 250 people, a train, and countless trees, fences, streetlights and peppermint-paved roads.
âEveryone says itâs not a village â itâs a metropolis,â Van Horn said.
The ever-growing collection had greeted family and friends each Christmas for a decade until Hurricane Katrina interfered in 2005. And it took the coronavirus to bring the village back to life.
âMy grandkids are old enough to appreciate it, and with the pandemic, I have so much more time,â she said.