Here’s to Something New!

A new year has just begun.   Department 56 collectors certainly cannot wait to see what new village pieces are in store for them.  Here are some of the new 2025 introductions:

Needless to say, introducing new pieces into the new year means that we have to say goodbye to some of the current items (I call it the “Circle of Life in Collectibles”).   Click on these links to see the various 2024 retirement lists: Village, Snow Village Halloween and Snowbabies.

As for our club, we have just celebrated our 30^th anniversary this past November.  It was a smaller event than our previous anniversary celebration, but it was joyful and meaningful for those in attendance nonetheless.  Click here to see for yourself what fun activities we had.  To stay in touch with our club’s activities, refer to the newsletters prepared by our fantastic newsletter teams here.

The Golden Gate Bridge

Department 56 introduced a magnificent hand-painted porcelain piece called the “Golden Gate Bridge” in 2004 for the Christmas In The City Series.  For collectors who like to include well known replica pieces to their displays, this is one that definitely "fits the bill to a T".  Sadly, this hefty and delicate but impressive “building” was retired by the company in 2006.

But, do you know that the construction of the real Golden Gate Bridge in the San Francisco Bay area began on this day (January 5th) in 1933?   According to the Frommer's travel guide, the Golden Gate Bridge was described as "possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world."  At the time of its opening on May 27, 1937, it was both the longest and the tallest suspension bridge in the world – its main span is 4,200 feet and its total height is 746 feet. 

The bridge spans the one-mile-wide Golden Gate strait connecting the northern tip of the San Francisco peninsula and the Marin Country of California.  It carries not only vehicular traffic but also pedestrian and bicycle traffic.  This spectacular bridge is one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco.

Happy New Year 2025!!

May the new year bring you and yours joy, great health and many wonderful memories!

2024 Autumnal Equinox

Today is the beginning of Autumn, when the sun crosses the celestial equator going south and when the length of daytime is nearly the same as the length of nighttime.  For us collectors, this means it is time to make changes to our displays to welcome the new season!

A couple of weeks ago, a few club members attended the Great Canadian Halloween Market where we were able to promote our club to attendees of the event and show off what we can do with our village pieces in displays.  That was definitely a fun event and we absolutely had to give kudos to the event organizers.  Below are some photos taken at the event

Our September meeting is just a week away and we can’t wait to get together with club members again after a 4-month hiatus.   Click here to see what’s in store at the meeting. 

Our club’s 30^th year anniversary celebration has been postponed to our November meeting due to unforeseen circumstances.   Please make sure to come back to this blogsite and find out what we have planned for this special occasion.   In the meantime, you are welcome to visit our newsletter page to see what we have done all these years!

It’s already September!!??

 

Oh my, how fast time flies these days?   In the blink of an eye, the summer is slowly slipping us by and the fall is approaching gingerly.   But don’t fret, a new season gives us a new reason to start thinking about what village displays we would like to set up, right?  Do we want a fall display, a display honoring Thanksgiving, a Halloween display or maybe even a Christmas themed display?   So many choices … decisions, decisions, decisions!

First off, our club had a few meetings taken place so far this year in 2024.   If you would like to catch up on what we did, please visit our past meetings link.  When you are viewing those pages, see if you can identify which of these items below appeared in which displays our members meticulously created:

Secondly, some club members will be at the Great Canadian Halloween Market event on Sunday, September 8.   If you are attending the event, please drop by and say hello.

Happy Holidays!!

 

Ho! Ho! Ho!

 

Tomorrow (Nov. 26, 2023) will be the annual Santa Claus parade in Toronto.  This parade is the oldest Santa Claus parade in the world and it is also one of the world's oldest annual parades.  The first official Toronto Santa Claus Parade was held on December 2, 1905 with only 1 float, which was sponsored by Eaton’s.   Eaton’s was Canada’s largest department store chain until it went bankrupt in 1999.   For more details regarding tomorrow’s parade, visit  https://thesantaclausparade.com/.

And apparently, my frequency of updating this blog site is just as often as the annual appearance of Santa Claus .   My excuse, as I have always maintained, is “better late than never”, right??

First off, I have added the latest newsletters to the blogsite.   Charlene has been doing a fantastic job keeping all of our members informed and entertained with the newsletters.  Kudos to her dedications, her timely delivery and a job well done!   You can see what’s happening with our club through our newsletters here. 

Secondly, I have also updated highlights for our meetings so far this year.    Since we have recovered from the Covid pandemic, our club has finally started to have in-person get togethers.  You can see our 2023 meeting details here (in addition to meetings from previous years).

And speaking of meetings, yes, we are having our Christmas/November meeting tomorrow.   We will have our annual potluck lunch, Christmas display contest, penny sale for charity, gift exchanges and much more!   Hope to see everyone there!   

Last but not least, Department 56 is also on the news lately.   They have announced the annual retirement list in early November.   If you have missed that information, you can click on these links to find out what products the company has retired: 2023 Snowbabies retirement list and 2023 Village retirement list.

Now that  some current products has retired, the company is already planning for their replacement in the new year.   Below are sneak peeks of some of the new village products you will be seeing in 2024:

2023 Mid Year Introductions

In addition to new products announced at the start of the year, Department 56 would often introduce new village items in the spring timeframe.   The slate of this year’s midyear introductions is quite small compared to what we have accustomed in previous years.  Only these 2 villages have new lit buildings and accessories: Snow Village Halloween and The Nightmare Before Christmas.  However, since the Snow Village Halloween series was introduced 25 years ago, 2 of the new pieces are created for the special occasion.