30 Photos
Jane Holden and her colleagues decorate the Brown Harris Stevens windows last year. COURTESY JANE HOLDEN
Jane Holden and her colleagues decorate the Brown Harris Stevens windows last year. COURTESY JANE HOLDEN
Jane Holden and her colleagues decorate the Brown Harris Stevens windows last year. COURTESY JANE HOLDEN
Jane Holden and her colleagues decorate the Brown Harris Stevens windows last year. COURTESY JANE HOLDEN
Jane Holden and her colleagues decorate the Brown Harris Stevens windows last year. COURTESY JANE HOLDEN
Jane Holden and her colleagues decorate the Brown Harris Stevens windows last year. COURTESY JANE HOLDEN
Jane Holden and her colleagues decorate the Brown Harris Stevens windows last year. COURTESY JANE HOLDEN
Jane Holden and her colleagues decorate the Brown Harris Stevens windows last year. COURTESY JANE HOLDEN
Christmas Village Collection Lights Up Window Display
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. COURTESY JANE HOLDEN
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. COURTESY JANE HOLDEN
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. COURTESY JANE HOLDEN
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. COURTESY JANE HOLDEN
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. COURTESY JANE HOLDEN
Jane Holden in the Brown Harris Stevens window with some of her collection. DANA SHAW
Jane Holden in the Brown Harris Stevens window with some of her collection. DANA SHAW
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. DANA SHAW
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. DANA SHAW
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. DANA SHAW
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. DANA SHAW
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. DANA SHAW
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. DANA SHAW
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. DANA SHAW
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. DANA SHAW
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. DANA SHAW
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. DANA SHAW
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. DANA SHAW
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. DANA SHAW
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. DANA SHAW
A vignette of Jane Holden's Christmas Village in the Brown Harris Stevens window in Sag Harbor. DANA SHAW
Jane Holden and her sister had one special day marked on their calendars that they would spend together each year. It would start with a visit to their mother’s grave, then lunch at their favorite Italian restaurant where they’d catch up with one another and share memories of their mom, and then they’d go shopping.
Mega mall Roosevelt Field was nearby, but there was no gliding the shiny floors there for these two. They went straight to Fortunoff’s, where she and her sister, Claire Holden Wagner, would fill shopping carts with new Christmas Village pieces. Holden purchased the pieces for a collection she started for her daughter, Mary Schneider, although Schneider is known to have commented when people see her display, “This is Mom’s collection, I’m just holding it.”
Not so, said Holden. It’s all hers.
At the same time, her sister was adding to her personal collection, which grew to be about 500 to 600 pieces. When she died in 2019, the collection was passed on to Holden.
Christmas Village pieces are miniature ceramic replicas of holiday scenes, the most popular of which is probably Department 56, so named for the number assigned to the gift imports division by Bachman’s, a florist in Minnesota, where the idea for the pieces originated. The first to be rolled out was Snow Village, inspired after a group of friends “set off to enjoy a dinner of celebration at a small country inn nestled in a quiet river town. As they rounded a bend in the road, they saw the small, old-fashioned village decorated for the holidays. The lights, like fairies, glowed and sparkled amid the freshly fallen snow. All evening, the conversation was full of Christmas memories and the visions the tiny town had evoked. Amid the jovial banter and magical memories, the idea for a lighted Christmas village was born,” notes the Department 56 website.
Now, during the holiday season, Holden’s collection is on display for all to see in the window of Brown Harris Stevens on Main Street in Sag Harbor, where Holden, a longtime Sag Harbor resident, is a real estate broker.
Last year, as the holiday season was approaching, Holden told her colleagues about the collection during some office chatter. Soon after that conversation, the office manager approached her asking if she’d consider displaying the collection in the office’s large window space. Without hesitation, she agreed, realizing the gift it could be to the community, as well as a fine homage to her sister.
Holden recalled that when her children were little and they’d visit her sister during the holidays, “It brought such joy to watch the kids looking at the village.”
That same joy was on the faces of her colleagues who helped set up the village last year in the window at Brown Harris Stevens. “It brought happiness and joy to everyone,” said Holden, once they got over their amazement at the sheer volume of pieces to be put on display.
“I’ve been in real estate for more than 40 years,” said Holden. “Sometimes we need something that is not competitive that brings everyone together.”
Last year’s holiday season was proof enough that their effort was worth it as they watched passersby stop and admire the display in the window.
One day Holden noticed a boy staring at the display. When she asked if he enjoyed looking at it, he said, “Look, there’s a skunk,” homing in on one of the display’s details. The boy’s mom told Holden that her son asked to come by the display every day to look at it.
Thinking back to that moment, she said “I know my sister is smiling.”
Kim Covell on Nov 15, 2023