A village under your Christmas tree

It's magical. The German word putzen (to decorate or adorn) gave us tiny, illuminated, mountain vallies full of houses, neighborhoods, hills, fences, sleds, and cast iron villagers and ice skaters. I thought it was ingenious that my mother used a mirror as a skating pond. The hardest part is keeping little kids' hands off, which is nearly impossible. My mom refused to put it out for a few years til my kids could control themselves.