Managing editor
With nimble fingers and a steady hand, Mary Jeffrey of Marion gingerly sets a ceramic building amid other figurines Monday on a blanket of artificial snow.
For the past six years, Jeffrey has shared her Christmas village with her church family at Valley United Methodist Church, 300 E. Santa Fe St., Marion. This year is no different.
The village is included in this year’s Christmas home tour, sponsored by Marion City Library.
The ceramic village of churches, stores, houses, and people has been a part of Jeffrey’s collection for more than 20 years. The majority of them were purchased at Ace Hardware stores as part of a series.
“I started displaying them at home in a bedroom,” the retired Marion Elementary School teacher said, “but it was difficult to see everything.”
Jeffrey asked church leaders a half a dozen years ago if she could display it in her Sunday school room in the church basement. Instead, she was asked to display it in the main church hall for the entire congregation to see.
The pieces are breakable but Jeffrey isn’t worried about them being broken by spectators.
“I usually break more setting them up than when the kids go through and look,” she said.
With hundreds of pieces and six large tables, setting it up becomes similar to completing a large jigsaw puzzle, placing pieces in groups and making sure there is a way to plug in the cords for motion and light features. Hidden from public view, a maze of cords connect some displays, giving movement and color.
The display is somewhat different every year.
“I love to watch people as they look at the village,” Jeffrey said. “They’ll say, ‘is that a new piece?’ and I’ll say, ‘no’.”
Because the pieces are in different places, people think they are new.
Jeffrey has assistance from family and friends with setting up and putting away the display. It takes about 40 hours to set up.
After Christmas, the display will be put away — each piece in its original box — and stored in Jeffrey’s garage. A spreadsheet matches numbers on the boxes for each piece to numbers on storage boxes and the shelf number on which the box should go, making the best use of limited space.
Jeffrey always keeps her eyes open for additional pieces — typically after the holidays so she can purchase them at a reduced price.
She has her favorites, with her most favorite being the first church that she purchased. She also likes the building, “Mary’s Restaurant.”
Jeffrey doesn’t know how many more years she’s going to display her Christmas village. She’s not thinking about that right now.
She’s looking forward to bringing some Christmas cheer to visitors Sunday on the home tour.