Couple spends holidays at special 'village'

Gary and Bev Melott enjoy annual tradition of setting up their Snow Village

By Barbara Sherman

The Regal Courier, Nov 25, 2009, Updated Nov 25, 2009

Barbara Sherman / Regal Courier

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THEIR HOUSE TO YOURS — Bev and Gary Melott love their Christmas decorations so much that again this year they are inviting their friends and neighbors in The Highlands to stop by to see the collections and displays that they started setting up Oct. 30.

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Gary and Bev Melott have a not-so-secret passion that they share with friends and neighbors at this time of year.

The Melotts, who live in The Highlands, are avid collectors of Christmas wares, and their collections move front and center as the couple prepares for the holidays.

Not only do the Melotts turn a whole room in their home into a Department 56 Snow Village, but other areas of the house are devoted to collections of Santa Clauses, snowmen and "outdoor" wintery scenes.

"We're crazy," Bev said.

Does their electric bill get a little high lighting up an entire village, even if it is Lilliputian-sized? "We don't pay attention," said Gary.

To get all the decorating done, they have devised a simple system that works well: "I do everything outside, and inside I do what she tells me to do," Gary said.

Bev attributes her enthusiasm for Christmas collections to her childhood in Toledo, Ohio.

"I was one of seven kids, and we looked forward to going to Grandma's house," she said. "She had a realistic-looking fake fireplace and little cardboard houses and a church, each with its own light. I thought it was the neatest thing.

"This was in the 1930s and early '40s - that's what started me on this."

When Bev was a senior in high school, the family moved to California, where her mother's artistic cousin taught art and did a lot of decorating, which gave further impetus to Bev's dreams of creating a winter wonderland in her own home at Christmas.

Gary, on the other hand, was born in Portland and moved at the age of 3 to San Jose, Calif., where he grew up, met and married Bev, and worked first for FMC Corp., then as a boiler service- and repairman.

In 1991, the Melotts moved to the Portland area where their two daughters and first grandchild lived. Gary worked for a while in customer service, and they lived first in Lake Oswego and then Cooper Mountain before deciding to build in a new area called The Highlands.

"There was a barn behind us with horses when we moved in," Gary said.

In the meantime, their Department 56 collection started in 1976, when the first Snow Village pieces were created, and someone gave the couple three of the buildings, which started their collecting craze.

When they moved into their Highlands house, the couple put up a small Snow Village display.

"When he retired 10 years ago, he got as bad as me," Bev said, and Gary added, "We went crazy until the last couple years. Every time there is a house for sale here, we think about buying it to store our collection."

Bev has the Department 56 GreenBook that lists original prices and current values of pieces, and Gary bids on some on eBay.

Bev, who used to be a window trimmer, explained, "The village just kept getting bigger and bigger."

Department 56 makes several versions of its villages, and the Melotts decided to collect the largest-scale pieces, although they have found that they can add accessory pieces from the other ones.

Over the years, they have seen the Department 56 pieces get more detailed and realistic. "The original pieces just had lights," Bev said. "By comparison, the first ones are crude."

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