Monday's Internet Edition, May 12, 2008.
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Features Editor
- Piedmont Village, population: 1,000.
There is a museum. A planetarium. An opera house, a ballet school, five churches, a chocolate shop, four schools, an antique shop, a Victorian Christmas shop, and a bakery.
There’s a fire department. A train depot. A theatre featuring “The Nutcracker.” There’s a grocer, a toy store, a carousel, and a flower shop. Oh, and don’t forget the puppet maker’s shop, the toy factory, and the city park.
This isn’t a fancy city suburb. It’s Don Roha’s living room. More correctly, it’s Don Roha’s living room, dining room, and spare bedroom.
Roha — who lives off Flick Circle at Piedmont Crossing — and his neighbor Sarah Chandler delight each year in setting up a lighted Christmas village.
But this is no small village — the display, which this year took four weeks to set up, includes 1,000 figurines and 193 lighted buildings.
The time period is sometime between 1895 and 1910, and the duo — who refer to themselves as “partners in crime” — try to keep the village looking the part.
Roha orders the buildings and figurines over the telephone, and they are then shipped to his home. The village is made of pieces that have come from all over America — California; Williamsburg, Va.; New York; Florida; Pennsylvania; Boston, Mass. and Chicago, Ill.
What got the pair started in earnest?
“Insanity, I think,” Chandler joked.
“Fifteen years ago, I bought an ice skating rink for the dining room table,” Roha said. “And it looked lonely, so I bought four houses to go with it, two for each side. And ... well, it just snowballed.”
Snowballed, indeed. Roha regularly entertains groups of people at his home to tour the village.
His “Nutcracker Suite” plays four automated scenes from the play — complete with music and red velvet curtains.
The detail on each piece is exquisite, and some buildings even show small figures on the inside. Most pieces have their own music — even the sleighs filled with shouting teenagers.
“It’s another world in here when this village is put together,” Roha said. “I wouldn’t dream of stopping.”
(Dec. 6)