The History of Department 56 Holiday Villages

The History of Department 56 Holiday Villages

If you were starting a company to produce instrumentation replicas of perfect houses for assorted arts and fictitious settings what would you study it? I'm sure Department 56 is not the first catchword that comes to your mind; so how did it become to theirs? Let's find out.

Welcome to Stillwater

One Christmas, a group of friends designed to celebrate the Holiday with a quiet dinner in Stillwater Minnesota, a tranquil community along the St Croix river. Decorated for the holidays and coated with a fresh blanket of snow, this idyllic and picturesque community captivated the friends. As they dined in a tranquil land inn, charm of the street lights sparkling on the freshly fallen snow evoked an evening of wonderful Christmastime memories. The storytelling and memories were the rousing for recreating this scene with a aflame Christmastime village.

Over 30 years ago, Bachman's, a execute retail florist in Minneapolis, used a listing system to identify apiece of its departments. The wholesale heritage division was Department 56. The imagine was brought to chronicle when, in 1976, Department 56 introduced a series of six hand-painted, instrumentation buildings. These execute buildings were the groundwork of the original Snow Village Series, and the rest is history.

Currently headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Department 56 is a cheater in the giftware, collectibles and holiday decorating industry. They are best famous for their hand-crafted aflame villages and Snowbabies(TM) figurines.

Some essential dates in the story of Department 56 include:

1976 - Department 56 introduces of six charming, lighted, instrumentation buildings. The Original Snow Village®.

1979 - Original Snow Village designs retired and 12 newborn buildings introduced. First Village accessories.

1984 - The Dicken's Village Series® free (seven unhappy shops and a church from age England). First community in The Heritage Village Collection®.

1986 - The Heritage Village Collection expanded to include The New England Village Series and The Alpine Village Series® and The World of Snowbabies(TM) figurines are introduced.