This Week's Treasure Story
Transformation of a 1950s Putz Cardboard Christmas Village
I am honored to share a story of treasure transformation by my dear friend Victoria Lude. May her experience and creative artistry spark new ways for you to share your own classic treasures.
As a young child of the early 1960s, I was fascinated by my mother Florence’s tiny cardboard Christmas village. The love of this village has been with me my entire life. In the 1990s, I began to put up mom's village for her at Christmastime. Over time, it was moved from her coffee table to the dining room hutch.
One year, Mom purchased ceramic villages for me and my two sisters. I had no interest in it and kindly asked her to give it to someone else. I told her I would wait for her tiny cardboard village. The following summer she brought me six of her broken village houses and the materials to repair them. A bonus, the box also contained a set of miniature skaters, a pair of skiers, an old man and woman in a horse drawn sleigh, and a man pulling his wife and baby on a sled. These duplicates of her own set had previously belonged to my Aunt Vera. My mother passed away in February 2017 and the entire tiny village is now with me in my home.
For Christmas of 2022, I refurbished eight of the tiny houses and turned them into hanging ornaments for my siblings, daughters, and a few close friends of mother as a special memory of Florence and her love of Christmas. I glued the one and only picture of mom with her village on her last Christmas to the bottom of each ornament.
This year my youngest daughter requested a Halloween village for Christmas. I pulled out the five remaining broken houses from my mother’s set. With the artistic help of my sister Cindy, and a few store-bought homes which we painted, I transformed these classic Christmas homes into a Halloween-themed village. I believe that my daughter will be thrilled to have a part of her grandmother in her home.
Are You Seeking the Joys of Times Past?
Join me in my quest, where you just might find distinctive and interesting items once thought to be long gone.
Intricate hand beaded jewelry & ornaments, stained glass, upcycled lamps, books, music, electronics, table & decorative ware. These are merely a sampling of nostalgic buried treasures, waiting to be revealed.