We have a “brass and glass” display stand in our kitchen/eating area where I place my Dept. 56 “Original Snow Village” pieces, now focused on the theme of children and grandparents. With a little tweaking, putting away the most Christmassy pieces, I will leave this display intact until spring.
And this leads me to my favorite Dept. 56 accessory set, “Nanny and
the Preschoolers,” one of my first purchases in the "Original Snow Village" series. Now retired,
it’s a two-piece set – 1) Nanny pushing a baby buggy, and 2) followed by three
preschoolers. In 2017, Nanny and the baby buggy wandered too close to
the edge of the display where they were accidentally pushed off the precipice and
fell three or four feet to their demise, tragically leaving the preschoolers without supervision. While you’d think the preschoolers might have grieved a bit for the loss of Nanny,
they seemed to cheer more than ever, but I missed her and decided to try
to find a replacement.
It didn't happen right away, and I began to look at different options. Last summer, Dept. 56 offered a
deal on a mother pushing a baby buggy in the smaller “Christmas in the City”
series. Hmmm. She wasn’t perfect, but she was charming and reasonably priced
and would do for the time being. Still, I continued my search for the real
Nanny, thinking that perhaps someone somewhere had experienced a compensating
accident wherein they lost the preschoolers. I felt certain such an accident
could have happened, but if so, we seemed to be waiting each other out.
Anyway, this Christmas season I
found an Etsy seller offering a Nanny – no box, no Preschoolers – for a price.
I mean, this is Nanny, half of a broken set, and she has no box, but this
seller was waiting for me and I was at her mercy. I bought her, and it
made me very happy. (I could have bought the full set from another seller for
$10 less, but then I’d still have a broken set.)
And I’m sure you’re wondering
what happened with the little mother pushing her baby buggy. Well, she looks
great on the top shelf of the display approaching JoAnn’s. (The JoAnn’s shop is
not a Dept. 56 piece and is on permanent display.) KW
I agree that waiting to buy the one piece was much better than leaving another set without their partners. And the other looks great where you put it!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Chris. I'm sure I did the world a favor by taking this Nanny.
ReplyDeleteMy "Thanksgiving at Grandmother's House" is now missing an accessory piece -- little boy being followed by a dog. I don't expect to be able to replace that piece. I bought a cut dog playing in leaves.