If ever there was an accidental collector, it’s Anne Lalonde.
After buying one Snow Village Christmas decoration nearly 40 years ago, she had no idea that it would eventually become a collection that would outgrow the house she shares with her husband Ron.
Now, the Snow Village collection of wintry houses, businesses, people and accessories has found a holiday home in a very public place, and it brings joy to many who see it.
Anne didn’t foresee that, either, but says it worked out better than she ever could have planned.
One building at a time, Anne and the family built up an impressive Snow Village, made up of buildings from the Department 56 Snow Village series.
The series harkens back to a simpler time, and Anne says it began with just one cute piece.
“Just thinking it would be nice on an end table,” she explains. “The next year I got one as a gift, and I bought another one.
“Every year after that, that’s how Christmas went.”
As the holiday-themed collection grew, it became the centrepiece of the family’s Christmas tradition.
Now, there are about 40 large pieces and so many accessories that Anne can’t begin to count them.
For a long time, the family lived in a spacious house in Calgary, where there was plenty of room to display the growing collection, always in the front room.
Eventually, though, Anne and Ron downsized and moved to Diamond Valley, to a smaller place that lacked the space needed to display the village.
Something was missing
Following the move, the family’s beloved Snow Village stayed in the basement for five years, boxed up and out of sight.
Daryl, Anne’s son, says something felt amiss during that first Christmas at his parents’ new place. It felt like a member of the family was missing.
“There was no village for us to mess with,” Daryl says. “It was missing, and we noticed it the second year and the third year.”
The boys used to have a good time, Ron explains, by putting toy dinosaurs in the village or by causing car wrecks on its streets.
In those days, setting up the Snow Village was one of the first things done to get ready for Christmas.
For the kids, seeing the boxes hauled out into the living room meant only one thing – and it wasn’t long before the smell of baking and Christmas music filled the home.
The Snow Village was as much a part of Christmas as turkey dinner or presents under the tree.
On Christmas day, the kids always knew what their mom would find when she opened a present.
“When mom opened a gift, it was for the village,” Daryl says.
The kids always went shopping with dad and a $20 budget.
“We bought the little stuff,” Daryl says, “a cluster of trees or a little car, always a little piece for the village.”
The big stuff – a house or a business – were from dad, and Anne says there was nothing else she wanted for Christmas.
Anne added to it every year, too, buying things here and there near Christmastime, but she balks at the idea of calling herself a collector.
“No, not at all,” she says. “(The village) just kept looking nicer as it grew and grew.”
After the move, there was a big hole around Christmas time. The village was missed, and the family eventually started thinking that it should be set up again.
Anne didn’t feel right about setting up only part of the collection at home. It had to be displayed together, but where?
Home in the community
In 2022, the family looked for a place in the community that could host the display, and decided to approach Oilfields Hospital in Diamond Valley.
After getting the okay from the hospital, setting up the Snow Village in the building’s lobby proved to be a hit, and this will be the third year that it is set up there.
“We landed on the hospital, and like dad says, people loved it,” Daryl explains.
Hospital patients, staff, long-term care residents and the public stopped to take in the sprawling village scene.
Without a doubt, visitors would say some aspect of the village reminded them of their own childhood. One said the village church looked just like one they went to in Saskatchewan.
With its history and nostalgia, the family’s village touches people in a way that a display in a shopping mall or store window wouldn’t, Daryl says.
“People see the value in it,” he says. “There’s actual tradition there.”
Displaying such a large collection has its challenges. The first year at the hospital, because the table for the display was only so long, there was a raised level at the back so everything would fit.
Although it made more room for the display, people in wheelchairs couldn’t see the back level.
“The next year, it had to all be level,” Anne says. “We never even thought of that.”
They added four feet, and plan to add another four feet this year, making the display a whopping 28 feet long.
“Just like every other town, we're expanding,” Ron says.
At first, Anne had misgivings about publicly displaying the collection, not because she feared something might happen to it, but because she feared that no one would want to see it.
After seeing people’s reaction during the first Christmas, she began to change her mind.
“And that's what makes us, I think, the happiest,” Daryl says.
One day they made a game at the hospital, with prizes, cookies, and hot chocolate.
People were given a list of things to look for in the display and it was like a scavenger hunt, Anne says.
Thirty or so little penguins were hidden throughout the village, and one of the challenges was to see who could find them all.
“Everybody was pretty close, within two or three, but some were hard to find,” Anne says.
“One lady was there about five times, counting those penguins.”
Many of the prizes came from local businesses, and the winnings were spread out between hospital patients, long-term care residents and family members.
Considerable infrastructure is needed to power all the lights and to support the display.
It stands on 14 sawhorses, and 20 power bars provide electricity to the tiny homes and businesses. So many power bars are necessary because some of the plug-ins cover two spaces.
That’s a long way from the village’s beginnings on the coffee table. When the collection grew to be about three pieces, it went in a windowsill. At five or six pieces, it needed its own table made of plywood and sawhorses.
“Now it’s a village, turning into a town,” Ron says.
Setup is a big undertaking and usually takes a couple of days.
This year, the Snow Village will be built by Nov. 17 and will be on display until Jan. 17.
With renovations planned in the hospital’s lobby, the family isn’t sure what will happen next year.
