Grand miniature Christmas village unveiled in Hoorn: “The most beautiful thing we see is happiness in people”

The houses will be removed from the attic in October, says Karine Schoenmaker, who has the village at her home. “That takes us a whole day, because we have to be very careful with all the small parts. Together with my girlfriend Dorothé and our men, we then start building the village. Every year we have a different theme.”

While the men are busy building a scaffolding and hanging large canvases, the two friends take care of the layout of the village. “I focus on the big picture, Dorothé does the smaller houses, decorations and details. That goes very smoothly, because we have a good working relationship and don’t have to say much to each other. Everything goes by itself.”

This year the reindeer pulling a sleigh is the highlight of the Christmas village in Hoorn. “It’s quite an expensive hobby, because we do something different every year. But that’s how we keep it fun. The background is higher and we have invested in electronics for the moving elements and lights in the village,” says Karine. “Power is quite a ‘thing’. Under the tables you see hundreds of cables, which we have to squeeze through if we want to reach something. It is now so big that we cannot reach it from the side or front.”

‘Fuss’ in Hoorn due to absence of Christmas village

The Christmas village has now become a household name. Many people look forward to the village behind the windows on the Grote Oost, and children sometimes come by every day to take a look at the Christmas spectacle.

“Especially a few years ago, when there was corona, we saw a lot of people coming to our village to marvel at the houses and other elements,” says Karine. “When you stand in front of it you can dream away for a few minutes and imagine yourself in a different world. We can see them through the windows. A few years ago there was even a queue, waiting one and a half meters apart to take a look.”

There was great surprise in Hoorn when there was no Christmas village to be seen at the Grote Oost last year. “We were traveling that year, and therefore decided not to do it for a year. We received quite a lot of comments about that,” laughs Karine.

Looking for Olaf and Elsa

Not only the houses, but also the figures in the village are given a different place every year. This year you can search for snowman Olaf and Princess Elsa from the Disney film Frozen. “It was a tip from a friend, who is a teacher at a primary school, to place the dolls in a different place in the village every day,” says Karine.

“That also makes it fun for children who come and have to look for the dolls,” she continues. “A few years ago I heard from a man that his son almost came home disappointed after looking at us. When asked why he was not happy, the boy said that he had quickly found the dolls he had to look for. because they were in the same place as the day before. We didn’t have time to move them then.”

That’s why Karine ‘has’ to go through the tangle of cables under the village every day to make adjustments by moving Olaf and Elsa. “That makes it quite time-consuming, and you have to take it into account every day,” laughs Karine. “But the reward for us is the happiness you see in people when they look at the village.”