Christmas Tree Layout Plans for 2018

Department 56 buildings aren’t made in any particular scale. And there are so many different villages — Original Snow Village, Christmas in the City, Alpine Village, Dickens Village, New England Village, North Pole Series and the various licensed villages like Peanuts and Disney — that you really can’t generalize about size, or, for that matter, what will work best fo you.

So my best advice is to simply to do what you want.

I have plenty of Department 56 buildings, though not nearly as many as serious collectors. Personally, for traditional-sized O gauge trains and Christmas charm, I prefer the Original Snow Village. The snow village tends to be a bit larger than other village buildings and fits in with the smallish Lionel or MTH RailKing trains that also are undersized.

I also like Christmas in the City, but those structures are often scaled way down from real buildings. So the Empire State Building isn’t anywhere near O scale. But other buildings in the series are.

Basically, don’t worry about scale. Choose what you like and decide for yourself what looks good in your village.

I use a mix of Lemax, Dept56, Walmart. Anything that looks good. My favorites in Dept56 are also Snow Village and Christmas in the City along with their movie theme collections. As for the Dept56 skyscrapers, those look really nice at the back end of a layout with some sort of divider between the track and the buildings to add some depth perception. Really wish I could afford some of those, they are really nice.

Also check out the Youtube channel Thebigcrabcake. He has amazing videos of Christmas villages and O Scale trains.

As Jim R. notes, though not to any scale in particular, the village pieces are very festive and look great under the tree with O/O-27 Trains.  Like RICKA states, there are several variations available. We buy what we like and have a blend of several different series and makes. I’ve attached a short clip from our 2017 layout. However, the best show is at night with only the tree lights and the village lights on with the trains running. 

Good Morning,

Let you eyes and heart be the judge. If you like it, buy it.

In my opinion , Dept. 56 goes very well with O-gauge or S-gauge . Here are some pictures of a layout that I had featuring mostly Dept. 56 North Pole Buildings .

Kind of depends on the village series. I have found that the Original Snow Village structures go pretty well with O gauge, and that is what I have stayed with. I had a large collection of Snow Village at one point, but sold nearly all except the log-type structures which I am keeping simply because I like them the most.

You know I was just thinking this morning that I should start designing a 2018 Christmas layout that I could build with my kids.  It would get my oldest (12) off his computer tablet and doing something with his hands.  Plus he is more than old enough to do some basic wiring.

Department 56 ceramic buildings are ideal for Christmas layouts and as several folks said they vary in "scale". They are a bit more costly and some of the "retired" building go for nose-bleed prices. You might take a look at the wide variety of Lemax buildings which are lower priced. In your shopping, you may come across K-Line Christmas buildings which were made by Lemax. Department 56 & Lemax have websites and there are year-around internet sellers of both brands. The last quarter of the year is the big selling season. I have purchased both major brands at pop-up mall stores, major tool chains such as Home Depot, department stores, fabric/craft stores, drug stores and even a garden/plant store. Happy shopping and please post pictures of your successful search.

Tony

Up on "The D & H Bridge Line"

For comparison, here are (1)three Lemax buildings along with Lemax carolers.  The people are too big even for their own buildings.  (2)The depot is a Woodland Scenics building with O scale figures.  The buildings are different, but no-one has made comment about the size match.  (These were taken in the work area before display)

I have a complete Kohls St. Nicholas Square village buildings, I went back to HO so I no longer use them. If interested send me a email and I will send you a complete list of what I have.

DL&W Pete posted:

I have a complete Kohls St. Nicholas Square village buildings, I went back to HO so I no longer use them. If interested send me a email and I will send you a complete list of what I have.

My layout uses the Kohls St. Nicholas Square buildings if someone want to get an idea of the "details" that DL&W is offering...

Less costly than the Dept 56 items... a lot less costly!