Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 2A
January 1, 2014
^Reporter
Does Wilson boast state’s
biggest Christmas Village?
Debbie Wilson of Forsyth and her Christmas Village.
BY DIANE
GLIDEWELL
It is one of those magical,
imaginary places that come
alive in the best of chil
dren’s books or in the
minds of the most whimsi
cal and creative of people.
It is Debbie Wilson’s
Christmas Village, but it
has grown from a village to
more of a state or a small
country that, something
like Brigadoon, material
izes out of the mist each
year at Christmas time.
The Christmas Village
lights up to fascinate
Debbie and her family and
many friends who look for
ward to sharing the magic
each year before each tiny
home, church, shop, factory,
carousel, tree, and person is
painstakingly packed away
until the calendar signals
time for their reappearance.
Debbie is known to many
as Monroe County’s favorite
painter since she has been
voted the title in The
Reporter’s Best of Monroe
contest. She began collect
ing the first pieces of her
Christmas Village 33 years
ago shortly after she and
her husband, Ricky, mar
ried. She was attracted to
the quaint village buildings
at a shopping party her
mother-in-law gave and
decided she wanted to start
collecting something. When
she moved to Monroe
County in 1988, her grow
ing village came with her.
The Christmas Village
started out on a little table
in the house and grew to a
horseshoe of tables in the
dining room, leaving the
family no place to eat.
Ricky added on to the front
porch to provide a better
place for the village and
later built a second shelf
above the tables to make
room for another level of
village life. If you look close
ly, you will see a doughnut
factory, a couple saying
vows at their Christmas
wedding, one lady heading
to the laundromat while
another hangs clothes on
the line behind her house
and a man chases a dog
who snatched a sausage.
The two levels fill a space
about 26’x 8’.
There are now a series of
little towns, each with its
own post office, school, fire
station, church, houses,
trees, horses and pigs.
There is a carnival with
favorite rides that rotate to
music and lights and even
an airplane that goes up
and down as a little elf
pilots it. There is an ocean
filled with boats, fishermen
and docks. A trolley runs
down little tracks from one
end of the display to the
other. A ski lift built by
family member Shawn
Kelly carries people from
the lower level up to the
wonders above. “That is
something awesome, with
lights,” said Debbie. “The
whole thing works. People
can go from down here up
to the roof!”
“Everything means some
thing,” she explained. ‘You
can go on and on and on
and not see everything
twice.” Debbie says that
only two items of the hun
dreds (thousands?) in the
Christmas Village are
duplicates.
This year she added a
hair salon, a cookie factory
and five houses, and there
are two more items
wrapped under her tree.
She works to keep all of the
motors running and to find
a better way to light up
each special item. She uses
stringer lights with blue
lights between buildings to
cut down on the number of
cords under the table. It is
fascinating to look at the
village in the daylight, but
Debbie says it is another
experience to see it lit up at
night. She loves to look out
her window and see it on
the porch.
She sets up the village
differently each year. There
are always challenges, like
the motors that quit run
ning and lights that don’t
work right. This year a bird
got in the porch and
knocked over a couple of
things. It takes her about
two months to get every
thing situated. Then she
tells all of the people who
have been asking her when
it would be ready to come
visit. She keeps the
Christmas Village up until
the first of the year and
then carefully packs it
away. She has the original
box for each piece, most of
which are made by Lennox.
For three years the
Christmas village stayed
packed in its boxes.
Debbie’s son, Billy Joe
Wilson, liked to help her set
up to village and had lots of
ideas for it. He was the one
who started adding boats to
the village. Billy Joe passed
away 13 years ago after a
four-wheeler wreck the day
before his 17th birthday,
and Debbie did not feel like
creating the village for
three years, but then it was
time to enjoy all the little
reflections of life that make
up the display again.
Debbie’s other son and her
two grandsons enjoy the
Christmas Village, but she
does not see them ever
making it their own.
“I was planning on a
granddaughter to take
over,” said Debbie. ‘You
have to find the right per
son.”
But Debbie will be
expanding the village her
self for many years to come,
making it her special proj
ect of Christmas cheer.
One year the train ran
under the mountains.
There is a Hershey factory,
a Dollar General and a
Walmart with a fiber optic
color wheel that provides
an interesting effect.
There are raccoons getting
into the garbage can behind
the ice cream parlor, squir
rels standing on a log, and
a lady with a camera trying
to capture that perfect
Christmas shot.
“When I am putting it
together, I lie in bed and
design,” she said. Probably
some of the tiny inhabi
tants come and whisper
ideas to her.
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& Reporter