Christmas Village Scenes--in fishbowls!

Christmas seems to bring out my usually dormant inner crafter. I'm sorta obsessed with Christmas. Growing up fundamentalist, we didn't celebrate Christmas because it was a "pagan holiday." As an adult, I just love everything about Christmas--especially the decorations! The problem is that I get over-inspired. I see all kinds of Christmas decor I want to use in my house, but it costs more than I want to pay. So, each year, I choose one or two projects to make myself--for far less than it costs in the store.

I've always wanted to set up a little Christmas village scene, but pieces like this are prohibitively expensive.

This year I came up with an idea for using a couple of old fishbowls I had. Could I make contained, little Christmas vignettes inside the fishbowls? I decided to try. All the items inside the fishbowls were found at Dollar Tree.

I tried to create a higher background and lower foreground to give the bowls perspective and depth. The only thing missing is light. Wouldn't it be cute to place a short strand of battery-operated lights under the snow? I should try that next year!

Here are the Christmas fishbowls on display with my porcelain nativity set. This little tableaux sits on top of our upright piano. I think a fresh, green garland would be perfect on the wall behind this, don't you think?

The best part about this project is how much my kids love it. They are absolutely delighted with the little village and are planning scenes for us to add next year.

I love it when my scatterbrained ideas work out this well. If only they worked this well in conquering my laundry pile!