Building holiday spirit takes a village

By Diane Wright
Times Snohomish County bureau

	ALAN BERNER / THE SEATTLE TIMES Lisa Pearce has turned her dining room into a Christmas village with animals, ponds, a train and more. It takes two days to build the village each year.
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The village started simply — just a few homes and shops — and proliferated faster than you could say "zoning codes."

Lisa Pearce is the mayor, architect and principal contractor of this complex of miniature towns surrounded by a 2-inch-high white picket fence. Never the same from year to year, it has expanded beyond her dining table to another table and dominates her family's dining room in Mill Creek every Christmas.

"The initial pieces were these four," she said, gesturing to miniature scenes labeled after her family: Taryn's Toys, Bryan's Bakery, Lisa's Linens and Ashlyn's Animals.

"I put the flooring in; I put the wallpaper up; I did the shelving in the linen store; I made just about everything in there — all the bolts of fabric, all the little linens."

The village soon grew to accommodate zoo animals, a barn, ponds, a train, a fountain, a post office and a variety of characters. Tiny people roast chestnuts; kids play; little old ladies carry baking dishes; horses draw carriages.

Every year, Pearce checks out craft, toy, scrapbook, dollhouse-supply and thrift stores for figures for her village.

Next year's building plans include another village and a video store.

"I try to really incorporate old and new, things that are important to us," Pearce said. "Because that's what gives it its staying power."

It takes two days to build the village each year.

"It's in the packing," Pearce said. "If you pack it well and you know where everything is, when you take it out, it doesn't take that long.

"And that's what I try to teach my children because someday this will all be theirs."

Stylists make décor bearable

Then there's the Great Beanie Baby Takeover in Edmonds.

How did busy Signature Styles salon at Edmonds' Five Corners area become overrun with 155 of the soft, cuddly critters?

Beanie Babies, Basket Beanies, Jingle Beanies and Beanie Buddies, a bigger version of the Ty collectibles, festoon the stylists' mirrors and the shampoo area, and run the length of the front windows. They join garlands, wreaths and a sleigh. And 60 of them reside on the 10-foot-tall Christmas tree in the middle of the room.

"We just decided we needed to have fun this year," said stylist Debbie Doty, busy rolling a permanent into Phyllis Weishaar's hair.

"We had the same tree and decorations for eight years, and we decided we needed something different."

Kerry Smith, a fellow stylist who initiated the bear makeover, said, "Between Debbie and I, we'd collected so many. She did a smaller version of this at home, and I also did, too, on a much smaller tree. This is where I started."

And let's face it: Less is not always more when it comes to decorating for the holidays.

"More is always better," Smith said. "My one motto to my life is one can never have too many Christmas lights. And I think that applies to everything that has to do with Christmas. You just can't have too much."

'Christmas is everywhere'

Mary VanMeter doesn't confine it to Christmas. The log home she and her husband share in Edmonds is ever-changing.

"I've always decorated for every season," she said. "I designed the house as a palette on which I could play. Every month I change my decorations; it's a lot less expensive than designing another house."

Parts emulate her grandfather's 1806 home; parts are influenced by the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright; and parts show the lodge influence. But it's all Christmas, combining fun and faith.

The dining table has gold-and-purple candles and instruments. The theme of the piano lid is "Christmas Around the World," with a little bit of Oklahoma, Edmonds, the North Pole, Egypt and Bethlehem.

In the loft, "I have five trees up there, with Santa and poinsettias and trains and icicles," VanMeter said. "Christmas is everywhere — it's around the hot tub, it's in the bathroom, it's on the deck."

Nothing is safe, VanMeter said.

"Friends and family have been providing all of this stuff for years," she said. "Every time I pull out an ornament, a decoration, a stuffed animal, it means something. I think whimsy, for me, is the key. It's taking the spirit of Christmas and making a joyful setting."

Diane Wright: 425-745-7815 or dwright@seattletimes.com

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