it takes a village
Despite my love for all things miniature, I’ve never been one for Christmas villages. I can appreciate other folks’ but that’s just a road I don’t want to go down, ya know? People dedicate entire rooms for those setups – I don’t have the time, space or money for that kind of thing right now.
But then Martha had to go and ruin it for me when I saw this in a Grandin Road advertisement:
And in particular, this little A-frame house grabbed my attention. (okay, the bottlebrush trees did, too! Can’t. Let. Go!)
What charming details! What precious jadite trim! The simple lines appealed to me – if only they were a smidge more mid-century, right? That got my wheels turning…why couldn’t there be a little midmod village, filled with houses something like this:
Oh, this Marx tin litho house would be perfect…if it wasn’t 30″ long! (I could fit one on top of my china cabinet, i think – and nothing else!) But it would be so fun to restore one and Christmas it all up. And there are so many different styles to choose from; this website is a great resource (check out the limited edition with the bomb shelter!!!)
I came close to purchasing a tin house on eBay, but Lord knows I don’t need another fix-it-up project. Besides, the Martha houses are really reproductions of old Mica or Putz houses:
Popular in the 50’s, they’re readily available on eBay at reasonable prices. At least they’d be period-appropriate! I never knew about them until just recently, and while they’re really cute I just don’t see myself amassing a collection of vintage cardboard houses. I think they’d take a lot of care to make it through a Florida summer in storage, not to mention they’re COVERED IN GLITTER which, of course, is BANNED from decorations in my home.
I did consider making my own mid-mod cardboard community (sans glitter.) I have all the floorplans and illustrations I need already; I can cut patterns out with the cricut and shellack the hell out of the houses so they’ll last a few years. There is a fantastic resource at Little Glitter Houses with loads of inspiration and patterns for making the traditional style houses. Mr. Lamey is even in Jacksonville, how about that?
It’s a significant project that i’d need to start working on during the summer, though. What do I do for instant gratification? I present you with Plasticville!
There is a whole line of perfectly sized vintage plastic buildings meant for model railroads: stores, factories, motels, a TV station, and even a TRAILER PARK.
Most importantly, though, there is the ranch house in a variety of colors:
These are also all over eBay and just as affordable as the original Putz houses. I’m kind of kicking myself because I think we found a box of these at The Cape’s Community Garage Sale – I poked around for a bit but ultimately let them go. Arrrgh!
In any case…there will probably be some sort of mid-mod village making its debut in our home next Christmas. Damn you, Martha!!!