Once My Looks Go, I've Got Nothing

     Well, looking at my cute kitty calendar, it's about that time...   That's right, it's October again, which means it's time to bust out my Halloween Village for another season of miniature monster madness. I have of course written about it in previous years , but for this year I wanted to do something a little different. For last year's theme, I largely excluded the older elements of my village in favor of showcasing my newer pieces. This year, though, I decided to make it a point to go back to the very origins of my festive decor fixation and include the original buildings and characters that I got from Oriental Trading Company...three decades ago? That can't be right, can it? I'd better confirm with the kitty calendar. Oh. Damn. Well, since I started doing this what amounts to a generation ago, I suppose it's only appropriate that I chose to combine what you might consider the first generation of my village with the latest one. As such, I endeavor...

I've written in the past about my Halloween village display , an October decorative tradition stretching back so long that I vividly remember listening to Candlebox while setting it up at one point. In recent years, however, I've been facing a bit of a dilemma. Having expanded far beyond its humble Oriental Trading Co. origins, the current scope of the village in terms of sheer volume of options is quite vast, and as a result, I've had to make some difficult decisions. At first, I considered doing a significant expansion of the display, either in the form of one super-huge village or two entirely separate displays. In the end, space and time concerns (plus an injured back) led me to another approach: a single, highly focused village with a cohesive theme. Although this sadly led to the exclusion of many of the older pieces the very concept if this village was based around, I think I was able to put together one of my best displays yet! I'll let you be the judge. First, ...