Martinez family turns village into tree
A train circles the lake retreat as a fisherman casts his line.
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Jack and Robin Dunn and their daughter Kaitlyn, 13, show off their Christmas tree made up of their Lemax Village Collectibles.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
Holiday lights twinkle on homes and trees through the neighborhood as children play in the snow.
The stage is not suburban American, but it is Jack and Robin Dunn's five-tier Christmas tree.
Mrs. Dunn, who lives off Westmont Drive in Martinez, spent the past five years accumulating more than three dozen Lemax Village Collectibles buildings.
Each year, Dunn and her husband set up the collection on tables that take up an entire side of the couple's living room.
But this year, Mrs. Dunn tried something new. She set up a themed scene on each of the five tiers of a custom-built Christmas tree beginning with a lake retreat on the bottom followed by a town center, neighborhood and woods, all topped by Santa and the North Pole.
"We went to Myrtle Beach this summer," Mrs. Dunn said. "In one of the stores they had a tree sort of like this, but much bigger. I said, 'Oooh, I like that.' Then off we went."
Closeup of Jack and Robin Dunn's Christmas village displayed in their Martinez home.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
The Dunns debated the design. They wanted to use a rotating tree stand, which could not hold the collection's weight. Instead, the couple began building their own design in September.
They cut plywood for the tree's five tiers. After screwing the tiers together with heavy dowels and edging the tiers with garland and lights, it was time for crushed velvet snow, mountains in the background and the village to appear.
Mrs. Dunn unpacked the village in October.
"It's tradition,'' she said.
This year, Mrs. Dunn sent her husband's miniature hog farm, complete with John Deere tractors and a candy corn-filled silo, to across the room because of a lack of space on the tree, she said.
"She kicked me out," Mr. Dunn said, laughing. "I had to move my hog farm. This year, she wouldn't let me (in the tree)."
Space was limited, but Mrs. Dunn did make room for the train running around the bottom, a toy store and a bait and tackle shop.
"(It came out) pretty good. There's always room for improvement," she said.
Closeup of Jack and Robin Dunn's Christmas village displayed in their Martinez home.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
A single Lemax Villages Collectibles building can cost as much as $50 or more. Mrs. Dunn receives some new pieces as gifts, but she also buys them.
"I go after Christmas or when they are on sale," she said. "I've also picked up quite a few on eBay."