2026 May meeting

 

Location: Banbury Center
Date: Sunday May 31, 2026

Organizing Committee:

 

Agenda:

1. “White Elephant” sale
• we are planning a sale to not only as a means to raise funds for the club but also give our members a chance to purchase something they “need” for their collections or for their homes
• all items are reasonably priced at $1, $2, $5 and $10 – it is going to be a hoot!


2. Vintage Villages
• the owners of this Toronto based company, Breanne and Dylan, will be giving a presentation to our members what their business is all about and how they can help us to find a special piece for our own collection


3. Display around “Water”
• Water, water everywhere – that is not only what we find in our cities lately due to wet weather, but also the theme for the display planned for the meeting
• our members are invited to create a display featuring a Department 56 building or accessory inspired by activities on the water.  Your display can be as simple as a charming vignette showcasing a fountain or pond, or as elaborate as a scenic shoreline setting — the only limit is your imagination!

2026 March/AGM meeting highlights

 

Location: Banbury Center
Date: Sunday March 29, 2026

Organizing Committee:

• Executive members

Theme: Easter

1. Annual General Meeting
• Our Annual General Meeting is traditionally held every March. Last year, however, we had to postpone it due to — you guessed it — bad weather! Fortunately, the weather cooperated this time around, and the meeting was able to proceed as scheduled.
• An election of officers also took place during the meeting, with the positions of Secretary, Membership, and Program Planning open for nomination. The positions were decided by acclamation, and all incumbents — Ruth T., Andy N., and Gail H. — were re-elected to their respective roles.
• We also reviewed the club’s financial budget. Unfortunately, due to declining membership numbers, our finances have certainly seen better days. Nevertheless, we remain committed to moving forward and will continue doing our best to keep the club active and thriving.


2. Easter display
• Since Easter was just around the corner from our March meeting, the display theme was Easter.   As you know, our club is mostly associated with Christmas themed villages, but our members had no trouble coming up with some ingenious Easter related displays!
3. Easter trivia
• Judy did her “homework” diligently and came up with a few tough Easter trivia questions.  But because of this exercise, we now all know that the legend of Easter Bunny was originated in Germany! 


4. Easter Basket Exchange
• Due to the cancellation of last November’s Christmas meeting when we normally would have exchanged gifts among ourselves, the club decided to “switch it up” and did an Easter gift exchange.
• As expected, our members embraced this twist with enthusiasm and many of us came out to the meeting with gifts wrapped.  It took a bit of time to finish the exchange as gifts were “taken” a few times, but all in all, everyone went home with excitement and a wonderful gift.

2026 January meeting

 

Location: Banbury Center
Date: Sunday January 25, 2026

Organizing Committee:

Canceled due to inclement weather. This was a bit unprecedented as the club has never experienced back-to-back meeting cancellation due to the bad weather.

2025 November/Christmas meeting

 

Location: Banbury Center
Date: Sunday November 30, 2025

Organizing Committee: N/A

 Meeting was cancelled due to inclement weather.

 The November meeting was normally the Christmas meeting when there would be

• a potluck lunch
• a gift exchange among club members
• a member display with a Christmas theme
• and a charity donation

All planned activities has been postponed to the meeting in January 2026.

2025 September meeting highlights

 

Location: Banbury Center
Date: Sunday September 28, 2025

Organizing Committee:

• Tyler C.
• Judy G.
• Rick J. & Lise W. 
• Ruth & Dennis T.

Theme: Halloween! 

1. Display
• Our members were invited to create a display featuring a witch, and they truly delivered, as you can see in the photographs below.
• On the day, nine wonderful displays were presented, with each creator sharing the inspiration behind their work and the materials they used.
2. (Tough) Trivia Questions
• everyone was given a sheet of 20 multiple choice questions that are Halloween related
• however, the questions were tough and probably only Halloween enthusiasts could answer them all correctly.  For example,
1. On which night of the week  do witches traditionally hold their meetings?
• Wednesday, Friday or Saturday
2. What is the name of Shakespeare’s ghost that haunts Macbeth?
• Banshee, Banquo or Lucifer

2025 May/AGM meeting highlights

 

Location: Banbury Center
Date: Sunday May 25, 2025

Organizing Committee:

• Robert B.
• Marlene & Bill M.
• Andy N. & Don R.

Theme: Summer!

1. Annual General Meeting
• Due to the fact that our March meeting was cancelled due to weather condition, our AGM took place in the May meeting.
• The club used this meeting to discuss club businesses that happened in the past year as well as plans for the upcoming fiscal year.  At the same time, election of executive member positions also took place.  This year, the positions that were up for re-elections were President, Vice President and Treasurer.  
• We were happy to report that Dennis, John and Rick agreed to put their names forward for the nominations of the executive positions they currently held and that they won their respective positions by acclamation.


2. Display
   • the theme is "Summertime activities"
   • Because Department 56 is mostly associated with Christmases and Halloweens, the challenge for everyone is to come up with a display using 1 or more Department 56 items that captures what one may do during the summer season.  
   • Participating in a sports event, watching a parade, or attending a wedding are some possible activities.
   • As you can see from the photographs, our club members sure brought about some original ideas in showing how one could make a summer activity display using Department 56 items.
   
   
3. "Who's the Collector?" activity
   • So, exactly how well do you know your fellow collector friends?
   • this game/activity is for everyone in the audience to figure out who collects what
   • we will have everyone writing down a number of non-Department 56 collections he or she owns on a piece of paper (make sure to leave out your name!).  
     • A collection can be huge, such as stamps, buttons, seashells from vacation spots, etc or small, like 3 vintage Rolls Royces. 
   • We draw from papers collected and everyone guesses who the collector is
   
   
4. A "Word Search" game where everyone is given a grid of letters to locate a list of given words associated with TVCC.