Toni and Tom Catalina welcome family, friends, and “anyone who comes to the door” to their Butterfield Road home during the Christmas season and beyond, when Mr Catalina’s expansive Christmas village is on display. The result of 35 years of collecting, Mr Catalina’s village, made up of miniatures exclusively from the Department 56 collection, has grown this year to carefully set up “neighborhoods” of 63 buildings, featuring Dickens Village components. A rural neighborhood, a tree farm, and a pond on which motorized ice skaters skim the surface are some of the newest additions.

This year’s village took three 8x4 sheets of plywood, cut to form different levels, and six days to set up. All of the electricity to light the little township comes from wires snaked beneath each building and under the table, so that no wires show above ground. White felt batting sprinkled with “some pixie dust” sets the winter scene.

The village takes on a different look every year, said Mr Catalina.

“I always start with the Victoria Station in the middle, and then it’s urban sprawl from there,” he said. Bob Cratchett’s humble home and Mr Scrooge’s office, of Charles Dickens’ The Christmas Carol, are always on the same street. Bend to peer into those houses and view tiny scenes unfolding within.

The Catalinas will keep the village up through March, Ms Catalina said.