Holiday (doll) house tour

I don’t collect much—well, really I don’t collect anything. 

(besides cats, I’m sure my hubby would chime in to add)

When I was little, one of my grandmas started buying me Holiday Barbies, which I still have in their boxes (I had have a mean mom :))

My grandma also loved Hallmark ornaments. Each year, she bought the granddaughters the Nostalgic Shops and Doll Houses.I am the oldest granddaughter, so I managed to get in at the get-go in 1984 with the first house.



During the year, they live in their boxes in a closet upstairs. During Christmas, they get the mantle.














This year, Dustin and I decided we want to live in this little town.

There are beautiful little houses, with fully decked out trees. A cute little church that REALLY needs some lights behind it to show the stained glass windows…

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There’s a department store- with Santa waiting inside, a movie theatre, bank, and a cafe with the cutest little grocery store next door.

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We have a candy store, the post office with a private investigator above it, an apothecary, Hall Bros Card Shop, a house I’d love to live in (minus the fact that it has no stairs to get to the second level), and the cutest little gas station around.

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Our town is equipped with a firehouse—dogs and pole included. The bookstore is located right next door to the police station (I want to live in that bookstore). I’m not sure there are “cute” jail cells. If there are, it is here in this town. Need something from the Five and Ten? If you are a member of the Order of Buffaloes- their meeting room is right above it (that might be a secret, though….).

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Whatever you need, you'll find it here in the village. Everything but thing like flat screen tv stands, cars, and too many things on the to do list.  

As with all towns, there is more to see… and as with all slide shows of others’ vacations, I’m sure you are tired of pictures of places you’ve never been…. :)

I’m slowly working on finishing my collection. I have all of them from when I was little. When I was in college, it started getting hit or miss. Sometimes Grandma would forget who she had given them to and who she hadn’t (there are about 20 of us). I think there are about 6 or so houses I’m missing with a handful of the ‘special editions’ that I don’t have. The year I graduated from high school, the addition was a school. I went to college to be a teacher, so it’s funny to me that I managed to NOT get the school :)



Slowly but surely the village will get complete. Hopefully they continue with development and growth… although I’m running out of room on the mantle. This year, we had to expand to the shelves with the newest additions... 
 

…where it appears that we’ve busted Mr. and Mrs. Clause in a smooch by the bank.