Department 56 Dickens Village

Department 56 has been making Christmas village scenes since the mid 70’s. While it started as a simple vision to make a quintessential classic American or English village in a winter Christmas scene, it has evolved over the years to include many other versions of cities and towns celebrating Christmas and one of these is the Dickens Village Series. The series incorporates the Victorian era architecture and many of the places Dickens lived in and visited in his regular life.

What you may not know is that the Dicken’s Village is different from the Departmentt 56 "A Christmas Carol Village". The first focuses on the buildings and structures that existed when Charles Dickens was alive and the latter is based on his story, A Christmas Carol.

A Christmas Carol has become a favorite holiday story and the Department 56 Dickens village tries to capture some of the most beloved scenes and characters that have become famous all over the world since Charles Dickens originally wrote this classic tale.  The Dickens’ Village is perfect for any collector or family trying to bring the holidays into their home.

48 Doughty Street, Home to Charles Dickens
St. Luke’s Church
Splendid Cod Fish ‘N Chips
Lea Hurst House
Regent’s Park Punt Rental
E. Tipler, Agent For Wine and Spirits
Hollyberry Cottage
London Gin Distillery
Swift’s Stringed Instruments
Wilkinson and Kidd Saddlery
Boz’s Books
The Flying Horse Tavern
M. Pickering Finest Persian Rugs
Regent’s Park Punt Rental

New to this year is the Holly Tree Inn which is set to only have production during the 2010 year. Also, quite a few buildings and accessories were announced for retirement at the end of the year along with the Holly Tree Inn and you might want to snatch them up while you know you can.

List of Pieces To Be Retired:

Charles and Catherine Dickens
To The Manor Born
West Lott Chapel
Hallelujah
The Neilan Lund Gallery
Crowntree Inn- Anniversary Edition
Abel Beesley Butcher- Anniversary Addition
Golden Swan Baker- Anniversary Edition
Jones and Company Brush and Basket Shop- Anniversary Edition
Bean and Son Smithy Shop- Anniversary Edition
Candle Shop- Anniversary Edition
Green Grocer- Anniversary Edition
Welcome to Lund's Art Show
Persian Rugs For Sale
Regent's Park Footbridge
Decorating the Lamp Post
Shoeing the Horse
Dickens Family Stroll
Sweeping Up

Newest Pieces:
The newest piece released during 2010 are the Holiday Inn Gift Set, Saint Luke’s Church, Splendid Cod Fish ‘n Chips and Regents Park Punt Rental. Of interesting note, St. Lukes is actually the church Charles Dickens was married in during 1836 and is still an active Parish today.
Another piece that you will want to add to your collection is Dickens’ house. Of course, this is going to based on your own personal preference.  If you don’t plan on buying the whole village, you might want to focus then on some of their anniversary edition pieces released in 2008 like the Crowntree Inn, Abel Beesley Butcher and the Golden Swan Bakery.

Some of the best parts about collecting a Christmas village is the accessories and people you can place in the town to make it come alive. Of course, you have to have the buildings, but it wouldn’t be the same thing without adding the citizens and other scenes that you will get inside of the town.
One special couple you can get is Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine. The horse drawn coach also make a nice addition, as well as, the carolers. Christmas wouldn’t be the same without a bunch of Christmas carolers singing Christmas songs. They have lots of merchants doing there various duties like sweeping, selling newspapers, rugs and art. Another nice extra to have is the Regents park footbridge and the park bench.

 As new pieces are introduced others are retired.  There are plenty of Dept 56 Dicken’s Village Retired pieces.  Some of them include other of his classic story characters like Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.  Also, many of the Chelsea Market figurines have retired along with the 12 days of Christmas collectibles. 

Any collection featuring A Christmas Carol has to have Scrooge’s house or for that matter any of the main buildings in the classic story, your set just wouldn’t be complete without it.  These weren’t released as a part of the Dickens Village rather they were released as a separate series which is A Christmas Carol Village. In addition to the Ebenezer Scrooge House you can get the flat of Ebenezer Scrooge, Belle’s House, the Scrooge and Marley Counting House, Cratchit’s Corner, Fezziwegs ballroom and Fred Holliwell’s House.  You should know that half of these items have been retired
The classic characters from this story is part of what makes the story itself so timeless.  You can add many of them into your little snow village to recreate the story but like the houses many of them are retired as well.  I think the piece addition to your collection is Bob Cratchitt with Tiny Tim.