(in the nonretail category, that is) to begin decorating for Christmas and one of the last to take her decorations down.
It is always a little sad, she says, to put away the sensational collection of lighted casitas, Nativity scenes, Santas, snowmen and other seasonal figurines that fill the Torres house in west Denver. Her take-down begins Feb. 2, on Candlemas, the holy day that marks the end of Christmas and the Epiphany.
It takes far less time to put the collection away (two or three weeks, in a half-dozen storage bins) than it does to install it. That task begins in September and ends in mid-November.
Torres, 52, owns Denver’s two Las Palmas restaurants with her husband. She first became interested in Christmas village collectibles about 15 years ago. A display of three houses, each decorated with tiny Christmas lights, caught her eye at Builders Square.
She bought them. From there, she says, she “just kept going.”
And how! Her current collection, from village scenes to Christmas plates and glassware, fills more than five curio cabinets and more than a dozen shelves built specifically for this display.
Her miniature community enthusiastically mixes the sacred with Santa. Two Nativity scenes flank her Wal-Mart village display. In the living room, at least a dozen Santas are among the visitors to a life-size Baby Jesus (with dreamboat eyelashes).
The Torres collection includes:
A tack store, Chinese antiques shop, a blue-lit Graceland, an art-glass store, many churches, several schools, an old-school gas station, a smithy, a barn, a bed-and-breakfast structure, a tiki hut, a beach bungalow, a nightclub, an all-you-can-eat diner, several chocolate shops, a fire station, an alehouse, a police station, a post office, a lighthouse, a Chevrolet dealer, an amusement park (with its own little stands pitching corn on the cob, candied apples, a kissing booth, a skating rink, a Ferris wheel and more than a half-dozen carnival rides), an extensive gated zoo and railroad stations.
That doesn’t count the individual figurines — Santas, carolers, anthropomorphized bears, angels, etc. — that fill any blank spaces between village scenes, and every bare surface, from the kitchen pass-through counter to the stereo.
“Every year, it gets bigger and bigger,” says Torres, who acquired most of her collection from post-Christmas sales and secondhand stores.
