LITTLE CURRENT—Haweater Lois Bond truly loves Christmas, which is evident from her collection of snow globes, snowbabies and homemade decorations, but her most impressive holiday collection by far is the Dickens’ village which features 51 different buildings on display in her Blake Street family room.
“My children started giving me the buildings as gifts,” explained the 74-year-old Little Current resident. “It’s really grown over the years, with my most recent addition being my carousel that one of my daughters gave me for my birthday last week.”
The 51-piece village includes churches, schools, a post office, bakery, toy store, candy store, ski hill, trains and a train station, Santa’s workshop, sugar shack, farm, windmill, parks, skating rinks and holiday decorated homes, to name just a few.
Ms. Bond’s collection has grown so much over the years that her husband Gerald surprised her this year by building shelves above the two large tables in their family room that houses the village to act as ‘suburbs’ for the Christmas town that no longer fits its original space.
“My grandkids and great grandkids love it,” said Ms. Bond of her village. “They have starting giving me buildings too as gifts. I love showing guests and visitors.”
The village is all tied together with a snowy ground base, streetlights, white picket fences and village residents doing various activities.
As Ms. Bond gave The Expositor a tour of her village, she turned on all the different elements, bringing the display to life with flashing lights, Christmas music and moving figurines.
“The gondolas on the ski hill move,” Ms. Bond pointed out, “and I have two skating rinks with real skaters. Mr. and Mrs. Claus are dancing over here and the kids are playing around the Christmas tree at the toy shop.”
Christmas is a passion for the Haweater and she makes many of her decorations from table runners, tapestries, ornaments, figurines and wreaths, which in the off season take up a large closet in her dining room.
Growing up on Manitoulin, Ms. Bond shared that her mother instilled in her the magic of Christmas.
“I grew up in Green Bay and my mum always did special things for us at Christmas,” said Ms. Bond. “It wasn’t much, but I always really appreciated it.”
Now Ms. Bond has passed the spirit of Christmas onto her own three children and their children, including her grandson and six great grandchildren.
