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Chris Brester, who lives just outside Howells, has spent 35 years building a Christmas village that includes more than 600 buildings and accessories. This December, she made her in-home display open to visitors for the first time in seven years.
“Every other year is how we started, then I went to every three years,” Brester said. “This last time, I guess life just kind of got busy for us, and we didn't realize it had been seven years since we last set it up.”
Brester said she and her family began crafting the model village earlier this summer, given that the set up is nearly a year-long process. She said even though all four of her children are married, they all find time to contribute.
“It’s one of those things where we can't work on it constantly, you know, every day. So, there might be some time on a Sunday where we can actually fiddle around the whole day and work on it a little bit more,” she said. “But a lot of times it's just a little evening project for an hour here, a couple hours there.”
Brester said her long-term process drew more attention than usual from surrounding communities.
“This time is when it really kind of snowballed and we started to have a lot more people coming in,” she said. “It's fun to share it with so many people because of their reaction to it. Everybody says they hear about it, but you just can't envision it until you actually see it.”
Brester and her husband, Kevin, hosted a first grade class from Clarkson Elementary in early December. Initially, Brester was worried about having schoolchildren near her delicate set, but she said seeing their reactions was worth it.
“I'm not gonna lie. At first, I was a little bit leery about having first graders come through because they have a lot of energy,” she said. “But I'm speechless because it was just so much fun. Their reactions, the jaw-dropping reactions. They got right in there, nose to piece, and took a look.”
In the past, the set faced a greater potential threat than first graders. A tornado ripped through Brester’s property, destroying several buildings and half of her machine shed on Dec. 15, 2021.
“We had a tornado come through and take all the buildings on our place, except for the house and half of the machine shed,” Brester said. “The half of the shed that had the village and the loft stayed standing for some reason. So, the village pieces were all saved.”
Since the incident, she and her husband have purchased a 20-foot storage container, which she calls their own little home for in-between setup.
For Brester, the Christmas village is more than just a collection of buildings and figurines, but a family tradition and a way to share something she loves with her community. Despite the work involved to set it up, she says seeing people's reactions to the village makes it worthwhile.
With her collection displayed in her house until late February, Brester is already thinking about how the set can improve and impress for years to come.