A workshop where children will paint little houses and Christmas trees to create their own Christmas village. A village made with paper, glue, paints, beads and lots of glitter. Afterwards, the children will be able to put LED lights in their houses to illuminate the windows of their little Christmas village, just as they used to do in the olden days.
These decorations, which were already popular in the 18th century and especially from the second half of the 20th century onwards, were miniature villages that people made out of cardboard and paper in their homes.
And where does this tradition of decorative Christmas villages built around the Christmas tree come from? Well, it has its roots in the late 18th century Christmas traditions of the Moravian Church, a Protestant denomination with early settlements in Salem, North Carolina, Bethlehem and Pennsylvania. After World War II, some companies began mass-producing houses, churches and other buildings. Buildings usually had holes in the back or bottom through which Christmas lights were placed to provide illumination.
We will create our own Christmas village to decorate our house as they did in the 18th century, with a lot of creativity and imagination.
