Christmas village is family tradition
BY PATRICIA YOCZIS Correspondent
Acascading waterfall, turreted castles, quaint villages nestled in valleys, and a train circling a mountain are a small part of an extensive Christmas village that has become a tradition for the Palermo family for almost 40 years.

Louis Palermo of Freehold Township takes great pride in creating a Christmas village each year. Buildings that make up the display hold special meaning for Palermo and his family, and he says that his creation represents the true meaning of the holiday.

"It started in 1972 with three ceramic pieces, a pizza shop, a church and an apothecary, that I placed under our tree," said Louis Palermo, the designer and creator of the Christmas village. "Now there are about 350 large models and thousands of smaller pieces that include trees, cars and people."

Palermo said he started setting up the display on Oct. 1 and he finished by Nov. 30. He worked about five hours or more each night after work and estimates that he spent more than 300 hours on the Christmas village that will remain up through January.

"It is a labor of love, a passion with me," said Palermo, a Freehold Township resident. "It's never a job or a deadline to finish it. I love every hour I spend on the display, even taking it down."

Every piece in Palermo's Christmas village that nearly fills an 18- by-23-foot room has a story or a reason for being part of the display, he said.

"There's the church I got the year my daughter, Maria, got married, or the replica of the Brooklyn Bridge to remind me where I once lived," Palermo said. "There's even the small boat with a fisherman that was made in my hometown, Lago, in Calabria, Italy, and floats at the bottom of the waterfall."

Other pieces in the display include New York landmarks such as the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, Grand Central Station, Yankee Stadium, as well as international sites, including Big Ben and Canadian log cabins. Also, there are collections of castles, churches, village homes, mansions, lighthouses and cars. While the collections and pieces are diverse, Palermo blends them in a harmonious display of color, light and shape on various levels of shelves that he has disguised as snow-covered mountains or streets.

"There is no theme to the Christmas village, but every year the shape of the village changes. About four years ago I added the running waterfall. Last year there were more villages and houses to the left of the waterfall. This year the waterfall is in the middle and almost divides the village equally," he said.

Palermo said family and friends who know about his Christmas village buy models as gifts for him. Also, he buys pieces locally from Brock Farms in Freehold Township, or from a Hallmark store. His pieces include models from Department 56, the Hawthorne Village and David Winter collections.

A prominent part of Palermo's Christmas village includes a replica of the Christmas créche found in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican in Italy. He collected the pieces and gave the completed set to his daughter, who with her husband, Michael, lives with Palermo and his wife, Gina, and his mother-in-law, Teresa.

"The créche is what Christmas is really all about," he said. "It's not rushing around for presents. It's about family and friends getting together and remembering good times. That's why I put up the village. Adults see it and are amazed. Children stare at it with open mouths. Christmas is about simple things in life and people."

For the past three years, Palermo niece, Linda Palermo, who lives in Newark, has made a compact disc of the Christmas village complete with Christmas music. This year, he said, the Christmas songs will be in Italian and he will play the video of this year's display at his business, International Flair Beauty Salon in Freehold Township.

"I've already got an idea for next year's Christmas village," Palermo said. "I'm going to make the waterfall longer and perhaps not have as many high shelves. I love Christmas and hope the Christmas village portrays the real spirit of Christmas."

While mainly family members and friends actually get to enjoy viewing Palermo's Christmas village, a glimpse of this extraordinary Christmas display may be seen by going to the Freehold Township Internet Web site www.twp.freehold. nj.us, clicking on Photo Gallery, and then selecting Holiday Village.