You do not need to be a major department store on 5th Avenue in New York City to create and enjoy a holiday window display. You can create your own holiday display that will be a joy to gaze upon for the holiday season. Grab your hot chocolate, put on the holiday music, slip on those cozy reindeer slippers, get the family, and follow along.

Step 1: Pick a Spot & a Theme

First, pick a theme for your display. Scour you local dollar stores and craft shops for bargains and interesting items to put in your display. They do not all have to be to the same scale, this is a fantasy display, not a scale model. Plan on some type of movement in the display to add interest and captivate your audience.

For our holiday display we choose to do a typical Christmas Village with a Trolley going through it .

For The Trolley, I used an O-gauge Christmas Trolley Set from MTH Trains. This is my first O-Gauge set, and you can read more about it at TheHobbyGuy.

Our holiday display is in the bow window in our living room. If you don't have a bay or bow window, you can do this on a shelf, a mantle, or a table.

I set the Trolley up first to make sure it would fit, and because I just wanted to play. The set included a circle of track, however, I laid out the track in a serpentine. This will make the trolley wind through the display and give visual interest from different angles.

Step 2: Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

Ok, so that was an obvious title for this step, but thats what you need next. I picked up my snow at the local dollar store (I picked up almost everything, except the train at the local dollar store).

Notice I removed the track, this made it much easier. The track was then placed back on top of the snow.

I keep saying "I", really it is my wife and my two boys who are doing the work, and I am just snapping pictures and directing. This is shaping up to be a family tradition.

Step 3: Add Some Depth and Background

My wife found these accordion cutouts of a Victorian scene, they work perfect for the background. They are double sided, so from the outside they look nice as well. The key is to build in depth and interest at different levels through the scene, draw the viewers in. We used four of these cutouts in the final scene.

I am building my scene to be viewed from the inside of the house. If your primary viewers are outside, then the "background" is not along the window.

Step 4: Be Creative

It is your layout, there are no rules, be creative. We used Christmas ornaments for small trees, candle holders for bushes, porcelain houses, and various figurines to complete our display.

Step 5: Add Some Lights

Christmas lights work well, so do LED or Electric Candles. Keep it safe, no real candles please.

See the smoke billowing out of the chimneys? That was my oldest son's idea. Just some of the polyester snow rolled up to look like smoke. Very nice!