BY CHERYL SHUMWAY
North Country This Week

PARISHVILLE -- Imagine the work and creativity that goes into making a lighted miniature Christmas village with 107 houses, 340 trees, and 600 accessories.

“It takes five weeks to set up the village each year,” said Steve Parker, Parishville. Featuring six levels, it fills the center of the Parker’s house.

“The Christmas village is so beautiful and detailed. I can feel what it was like to live back in the past with the way Steve makes it. The scenes all seem so real," said Dottie Parker, Steve's wife.

It started 30 years ago with a Dept. 56 All Saints Church collectible, a Christmas gift given to Dottie by her mother, Mary Converse.

“It reminded me of the church in Hopkinton, where I grew up,” said Dottie.

The couple has since expanded their Christmas village display into multiple scenes, with a snow village, train station, woodlands, farm, and even an Elvis Graceland section.

[img_assist|nid=248955|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=240|height=180]The snow village includes Victorian era downtown shops, churches, houses, a carousel, and skating rink.

Dottie pointed inside one of the houses, showing a puppy being opened as a Christmas gift.

She said, “My grandchildren’s favorite is the house playing the song ‘I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus’ as they dance in the living room.”

A train moves around the tracks at the village’s train station. Nearby, a couple is getting married under a gazebo.

Steve pointed out a few of his favorites in the woodland section: the deer eating the sleeping hunter’s food and the fly fishermen at the river.

“Santa sitting in an outhouse in the woods scene is another favorite with children,” said Dottie.

The farm section shows barns, sheep shearing, chicken coops, and a variety of farm animals.

[img_assist|nid=248956|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=240|height=180]Christmas music is heard at the Graceland themed area, with Elvis singing several songs.

After high school in the North Country, the couple moved to the West Coast, returning 17 years ago.

“It was time to come home to family,” said Dottie, who works at North Country Savings Bank in Potsdam. Steve is now retired and busy with this and other hobbies.

The Parishville couple invites anyone interested in seeing their Christmas village to call them at 315-265-2099 to arrange a time during the day or evening. They leave their display up until mid-January.

“We enjoy seeing visitors’ faces. Their eyes get so big. It is fun seeing them come back years later and comment on the changes and additions,” said Dottie. “Every year we put it up, it is a different set-up.”

[img_assist|nid=248957|title=|desc=|link=none|align=middle|width=470|height=345]

Steve and Dottie Parker.