How We Got Hooked

It started with my mother-in-law, Irene.

Every Christmas, Irene turned her house into something out of a storybook — a whole village of little lit-up houses, tiny skaters on a mirror pond, snow-dusted rooftops, a whole world you could get lost in if you looked long enough. It wasn't decoration to her. It was magic she built with her own hands, piece by piece, year after year.

When we lost Irene, part of her Christmas in the City village came home with us. At first it just sat in boxes — we weren't sure what to do with it, only that we couldn't let it go.

Then came COVID, and with it, quiet, long days at home. And one afternoon, almost without meaning to, I opened those boxes and started setting up her village on our piano. Something about placing each piece down — finding where the little music store belonged, straightening a tiny lamppost — felt like holding her hand again.

That's when we got hooked.

As we started buying retired village pieces ourselves, we saw firsthand how the industry could let collectors down — packages that arrived with broken houses, pieces that were promised but never showed up. We knew Irene never would have treated anyone's village that way, and we didn't want to either. So we built Hooked on Villages to be the kind of place we wished had existed for us: careful hands, honest listings, and real respect for the memories packed into every box.

Four years later, our kids started noticing how much joy we got from putting someone's beloved collection into the right hands. They wanted in. So, Ryan and Brianna Kelley will soon be launching Hooked on Holidays, bringing that same care to Christmas ornaments — and Hooked on Villages is growing too, now welcoming other collectible retired villages, not just Department 56.

If you're looking to pass a collection on to someone who'll cherish it the way you did, or hoping to start — or grow — a village of your own, or a new theme for your Christmas tree, we'd love to help. Because for us, this was never just about figurines and houses. It's about keeping the magic going, one piece at a time.

Stay Hooked,

John and Allison Hickey