A lot of people feel very nostalgic at Christmas time,

A lot of people feel very nostalgic at Christmas time, as they think back to their childhoods or hark back further to Victorian times. Modern life will never replace our fondness for the traditional Christmas village scene. These images can take many forms, including books, jigsaws, decorations and model villages.

A one thousand piece jigsaw will keep the family fully occupied over the festive season! Thomas Kinkade is one artist who designs these Christmas village puzzles, showing a typical winter scene of houses lit up with lights and horse drawn carriages. For collectors of old prints, there is a book that contains the Village Church Decorations Children Christmas from 1895. It shows a mother and her young daughter, dressed in their finest warm clothes and walking through a snowy churchyard.

Many people like to decorate the outside of their house and gardens with the brightest display of decorations. Rooftop ones are very popular, including the Santa Sleigh over the Village Outdoor Christmas Light. This is a rope light and shows Santa Claus led by three reindeer over a Christmas village scene of houses, church spire and tree tops coated in deep snow.

Little cottages and houses are another form of ornamental decoration at this special time of year. The Ginger Village - Deco Light Pretzel House is a charming cottage with a night light and is pink and purple. Lots of people collect decorative plates, displaying them in cabinets or hanging them on the wall. The Christmas Plate - Christmas in the Village shows a church and a duck pond with swans, bathed in blue moonlight. For those creatively inclined, Christmas Village stencils are fun to do, with pictures of children playing in the snow, sledging and horse carriages.

For an advent calendar with a difference, the Old-Time Christmas Village Stickers calendar is ideal. Instead of opening windows each day, there are houses to stick on to winter scenes. The colorful calendar can be brought out every year, as the stickers can be re-used. Old fashioned houses surround a quaint village square with a Christmas tree in the middle. A church has a choir assembled outside and the snow topped hills form the background to this scene.

Model villages can be used indoors or outside. The Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol story is often the inspiration behind such models. This explains the Victorian theme of many village scenes. Snow is always on the ground, not so common now for today's children, and the snow is pristine without the tracks of cars.