Monday, January 09, 2012

The Perfect Place for a Christmas Village

For many years, my sister Sherry has set up a beautiful and elaborate Christmas village. When she does the complete thing, she needs two large tables with several tiers to accommodate all of the buildings, trees, outdoor settings, figures and so on.

It's a really impressive undertaking, complex and time-consuming, but the effects are well worth it. Indeed, onlookers can easily while away an hour taking in all of the individual scenes. Imagination, memories and emotions all find a charming enchantment.

As GK Chesterton said of the toy theater, one can have an intense and radical experience of very large realities when looking through small windows. It gives a different (sometimes, an ironically clearer) perspective on life. Thus, the fascination all warm-hearted people feel in the presence of doll houses, miniature railroads, museum dioramas...and Christmas villages.

So can you think of a more pleasant place to create a Christmas village than a local nursing home, a better place for boredom to be banished by the potent powers of memory and imagination and wonder and beauty? Neither can I. And that's why I'm so proud of Sherry for deciding this year to take her Christmas village to a nursing home near her so that the seniors there could appreciate it.

And boy, oh boy, did they!

Way to go, Sis!