Last Updated on November 22, 2018 by Dave Farquhar
If you’re looking for an O scale Christmas village or O scale holiday village to go with a Lionel train or similar train of another make, you’re in luck. You have two good choices.
The biggest names in Christmas villages are Department 56 and Lemax. I’ve compared and contrasted them here. Both are close enough to O scale that they look good with O scale trains. The buildings are really closer to 1:55 scale, but that makes the layout look a bit larger than it really is, since the buildings are a little on the small side.
Both Department 56 and Lemax figures are much closer to G scale than O scale. Some people don’t mind and use the figures anyway. If you don’t want giants roaming around a lilliputian village, you have two options. You can use O scale figures from companies like Arttista and Woodland Scenics. Both have a large selection of well-crafted figures.
For an affordable option, get Cobblestone Corners figures from Dollar Tree. Cobblestone Corners figures are very close to O scale. They’re also cheap. For a dollar, you get a package with several figures in it. The quality isn’t on the level of Woodland Scenics or Arttista, but they are better than many of the cheaper O scale figures.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.