Jane, I was leery of them, and they aren't cheap..but they remained lit ..haven't made my way down there in the ice to retrieve them. You just set the timer to how long you want them on. Susan's lights look very bright..these are LED..so I don't know in comparison how they would look..but worth a try. Some people even have those Easter villages too.. I kept a set handy in case I want to use them for a centerpiece or something. If I pack them away I will never find them! Jane did you see those very thin fiber optic ones QVC had..they were adorable..but by they sold out before I could get to the computer to buy them. They suggested them for centerpieces..very light..no pun intended! :) I wonder how tall those houses are..you would have to be able to see over them if you used them down the middle of a table. They look large in the pic, but maybe it is just the angle of the camera. I will ask Susan. The few that I have are low..but really only one is a Dept 56, which was a gift... I just looked on line and even after Cmas they are still pricey..and then I would have to find room to store them... I am talking myself out of it..but Jane, you already have them..so I will wait for you to do it! LOL

Tell him YES, he IS famous. I am putting some of his Village pix in our Inspiration album for people to enjoy for many years to come. I just need to get my butt in gear and finish loading some Xmas photos to our albums. I'm so far behind its ridiculous. Sorry about that. Its been so long ago, but I once saw a Village set-up idea that blew me away. I think it was in the Sat. home section of our paper years ago. The lady had an area in her home that was sort like an alcove, or maybe a giant coat closet. Her village was set up with 3 or 4 multi-tiers, tho it didn't look like just "houses on shelves" at all. It was really set up as a town and had one or two trains. But she had some kind of bi-fold doors, and when not displayed, she just closed the doors and no one knew there was a huge Village behind them!! I loved it. hugs, Karen

This thread has been a great comfort to me since I'm another poster who has been through some less than happy Christmases. The upside is the creating new traditions (still working on that - I consider it a work in progress) as well as simplifying my decor style. However, I'm lucky in the sense that I'm not terribly influenced by the latest trends being put forward by the design industry. It has to be priced right as well as fit my style, so even with my everyday home decor it's a pretty slow slog. 90% of the time I walk out of the stores empty handed. Every generation seems to have the same complaint about the over-commercialization of Christmas. Yet I remember my paternal grandmother owning several items (linens, figurings) for holiday entertaining. I have vivid recollections of my mom (and I want to say this was 1965 or 1966) covering one of the walls in our DR with fuschia foil wrapping paper and arranging large branches spray painted white in front. I have a book published in 1962 that discusses outdoor lighting. In it are several chapters regarding Christmas lighting, including a discussion about garish, over the top displays. So in a sense many of these concerns have always been with us. IMO, what has changed over the years is more a response to the changing marketplace. How many of us here have gone to faux trees for purely practical reasons? I would never have switched if it wasn't for the fact that the quality sharply declined (when do they cut these things, september?) and the prices for a genuine fresh cut tree rose to ridiculous rates (over $100? Um, sorry, no). Then we have the whole spectrum of products that are about convenience - net lights, pre-lit trees and garland, and those airblown lawn decorations. Even if you're not a fan of the airblowns in general, you have to admit they have some distinct advantages for the average homeowner: run an extension cord, stake the thing in place, plug it in and you have insta-festive. And after Christmas they require minimal storage space. Sorry for the long essay, but I think some of the items we've seen come on the market in the past 10 years or so are a positive in terms of safety and saving time and money. Yes, there's a lot of stuff out there that leaves me scratching my head, but that always seems to be the stuff that they can't give away at the post-Christmas sales. ;-)

Last year I started to use little rice lights to make kind of a park scene and realized I don't need all the commercially made buildings to create a cute winter scene. Their figurines are the wrong scale for the buildings anyway. I don't understand why, they are a big enough company to have noticed the problem. We are going to take photos when we are back in Chicago and we can use some ideas, but I would like to do the period when I was a little girl. Actually I will be going to DeKalb Illinois for a college reunion, and flying in to Chgo. /Adella --your son sounds really creative. I saw a boys room once with a shelf about 1 foot from the ceiling and the train could run around the room, above the doorways. We have the big train set made in Germany which is nice for the grandchildren to play with as its tough to wreck. I will take photos of the display. I don't have that many houses, but enough to have gotten bored with putting them up the same way each year.