Snow Village Techniques

Creating a snow village is a rewarding hobby that is similar to collecting train sets and setting up model trains. Not only are there buildings to be bought and set up, but there are cars, trees, people, animals and anything else you can think of to fill a quaint village. There are so many different items that can be bought for snow villages that creating them can be a project continued year after year.

Creating a snow village

Snow villages usually begin on a flat surface such as a table. White cotton padding is often laid down to represent snow in the village. Another method of creating snow is by using a substance like sugar or salt. This can be messy to clean up, but the glistening on the sugar or salt crystals creates a winter wonderland. You should also purchase a can of artificial spray snow to help highlight trees. It is best to reserve the spray snow for landscaping elements instead of using it on the buildings, as it may damage them.

Adding the buildings

Most hobby stores will have at least a few village pieces to help you start your snow village. You can also find snow village pieces online at sites such as http://www.department56.com/. Start out with an item that will represent the center of your snow village, such as a town hall. Then you can work your way out from the center with stores, a post office, police station, fire station, restaurants and other essential elements for a town. Village houses and a school can be mingled in with these buildings, but they also need to be on the outside of the village. Think of your snow village as a real town. You will have a central downtown area and homes will sprawl out away from it. As your village grows, so will your town. You can start incorporating more retail places farther out from the downtown area. You could even add another school if your town becomes big enough.

Add details

Add trees sprayed with artificial snow to your landscape. Put a few trees in the town itself and more on the outskirts of the snow village to represent the tree line of a small forest. Add a few animals, such as deer, to embellish the forest area. To create streets, you can use black poster board. Place poster board underneath the cotton padding and pull away the cotton far enough to reveal the black street. Place cars in your village, along with people and street lights. Add some extra detail, matching people with the buildings. For instance, place a few police officers outside the police station.

Use a model train set

What's a snow village without a train? Find a model train set that will accent your snow village. Start out with a small amount of train track and as your village grows you can add track or even add another model train set. With the addition of a train, you can also add a train station.

References

• Department 56
• Snow village history
• Christmas village houses

Resources

• List of snow village pieces
• Snow village pictures