Department 56

For everyone who has dreamt of designing their own little Christmas village. Pick your favorites and mix and match to create a Christmas wonderland. A premier design house and manufacturer of quality collectibles, Dept. 56 stands out from the others. Best known as the company responsible for the Village craze with collections such as The Original Snow Village, Dickens' Village, North Pole, Snow Village, Halloween Village, and many others, Department 56 is the true collector's collection. The Christmas Shoppe in Boerne, Texas is your trusted source for D56 villages in the Texas Hill Country.

The Department 56 Story

One Christmas evening, a group of friends set off to enjoy a dinner of celebration at a small country inn nestled in a quiet river town. As they rounded a bend in the road, they saw a small, old-fashioned village decorated for the holidays. The lights, like fairies, glowed and sparkled amid the freshly fallen snow. All evening, the conversation was full of warm Christmas memories and the visions the tiny town had evoked. Amidst the jovial banter and magical memories, the idea for a lighted Christmas village was born. That spark of an idea became a reality when, in 1976, Department 56 introduced a series of six hand-painted, ceramic buildings. The rest is history.