It takes a Christmas village

Roberta Morris’ childhood dream was to be an architect.

Instead, she worked as a pipe fitter at the Clinton Nuclear Power Plant and her dream was forgotten in order to take care of her little sister.

Decades later, Morris is getting to live out her dream. Just in a different way.

Now, she works as a type of city planner with her Christmas Village display.

Morris, who previously lived in De Land for 20 years, has moved her Christmas Village to the Ogden Rose Library.

The display has more than 500 houses and hundreds more people, vehicles, animals and trees.
The display took more than a month to set up.

“Some of the local guys help me unload,” she said. “One of the librarians even built me shelves.”
This year, Morris played, carved mountains and did anything her imagination could come up with.
Morris said the display is different every year. She said anything that was in the front of the display last year, she tries to move to the back.

She also moves items around each year. For example, the North Pole is in a different location this year than it was previously.

Library Director Allison Wakefield said the village was amazing.

“I am so honored to have her village at the library,” she said.

The library is sponsoring the village, which includes scenes from a 1950s-era Christmas.

Morris said she had been looking for people who love the Christmas Village as much as she does and will keep it going in the future.

“After three years now people are starting to get the bug,” she said. “It means so much to me that there are people that are going to continue this.”

The Small Town Christmas display will be available for viewing from noon to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sundays through Dec. 22 at 103 W. Main St. in Ogden.

The majority of the village is set up in the library meeting room. Library staff also created a display in the library window which includes Morris’ favorite house, a trailer.

The trailer cost $160 and Morris said it is one of the only pieces she has ever paid full price for. The only other piece she paid full price for is a replica of the SPAM museum.

Morris said she has bought almost all the piece and some are donated.

She began displaying the village for the public about 12 years ago for different charities, such as the American Cancer Society, at various area locations, ranging from Lincoln Square Mall and a women’s shelter in Urbana to banks in Piatt County.

When it is not in use, Morris stores it in 43 large garbage bins inside a trailer. However, starting this year the library is letting her store some of the pieces in their storage closet, meaning the fragile porcelain will be protected from cold weather. A local Ogden business also going to let her store her trailer, filled with the rest of her Christmas village, on their property.

“So that’s very nice,” Morris said.

Morris’ favorite scene is the wooden prairie section which features individually hand placed trees. She said male volunteers often ask to work on that section—she tells them no.

“That’s mine,” she said. “They can work on anything else.”

Morris said she has never seriously considered selling her pieces and has entered into an agreement with the library to display it there for the next five years.

“It looks like it is going to live on,” she said.