PEMBERVILLE – The
spirit of Christmas is alive inside many houses in Wood County, but perhaps none more so than Denise
Carpenter’s home on Devil’s Hole Road.Carpenter is admittedly more than a little bit crazy about Christmas
villages, to the extent that she has allowed the fanciful creations to fill much of her historic
farmhouse."I have just about every kind of village," from Department 56 on down, "but they’re
all period pieces from the horse-and-buggy era."She got started with the hobby more than 30 years ago,
when she and her husband "moved into this 100-year-old farmhouse."Carpenter, who was born and
raised in Dunbridge, noted that she’s never lived more than a four-mile radius from where she does
today.

"We raised horses and drove them,"
which was the inspiration for some of the first village pieces she collected. "I used to take it down
every year, but now the kids are grown I can dedicate an entire room to it" and keep it on view 365
days a year.Even the grandkids are old enough now – the youngest is 13 – to appreciate the village in a more
sedate manner. "They used to play with it" and Carpenter couldn’t resist allowing them their
fun.Her multi-tiered villages evoke every possible kind of geography."There’s a town, a forest,
mountains, a lake" and plenty of individual pieces that are precious for the memories associated with
them."When my 24-year-old granddaughter was born I have a little piece (that represents) her mother
pushing her in a carriage."The year her youngest son had to shovel snow and didn’t much want the job,
she was moved to go out and buy a figurine of a little boy shoveling snow.Other pieces are unusual enough
that they probably aren’t included in anyone else’s holiday village display. There’s a 1700s-schooner ship
decked out with Christmas lights and wreaths sailing on a lake that is meant to suggest Lake Erie, a
grizzled old fisherman on a wharf, and villagers huddled around warming fires on the shoreline, just for
starters."Christmas has always been my favorite holiday," Carpenter said.This time of year comes
with more complicated emotions now, since she lost her husband a year and a half ago.The Christmas village
is a way to recall the happiest times of their marriage."The horse-drawn carriages are the best for me,
and we have a little Carpenter house" included in the vast collection, if you know where to look.