Newton woman’s holiday houses collection is big enough for a full-fledged town

Sandi Rodgers has been the mayor of a small town for more than 35 years, and every year around Christmastime she and her townsfolk welcome another addition to their picturesque community. Sometimes it’s another business or a church. Other times it’s a new house with new neighbors. They always fit right in.

Only the mayor’s son Joe, the city planner, has any idea what the next inclusion will be. It’s top secret you see. The front page stories of the town’s newspaper give no hints. There don’t seem to be any rumors at the barbershop either, and the next door tavern is suspiciously void of the usual small town chatter.

The town is made up of around 50 buildings. Homesteads and mansions and cottages share the streets with churches and retail stores. Most of the residential properties live on the hills just north of the county courthouse, whose blue roof and white pillars are flanked by a bank to the east and a cathedral to the west.

Despite its tiny footprint the town has everything it needs and more. There is a grocery store with fresh produce on the east side. There is a hardware store to the south. There’s even a candy shop and a photography studio. To the east is a dock overlooking a bay, and across the bay a distance is a lighthouse.

Snow collects on the rooftops and on the water tower painted to look like a snowman. Children play in the snow or ice skate at a nearby pond, frozen to a mirror finish. Families walk arm in arm. Lights from their homes illuminate the streets with a warm glow. Rodgers looks down at her town and smiles.

It has no name. It has no history. It has no place on our maps. You can’t Google it and you can’t rent a room at its inn or hotel, if it has one. Even if it did you would not fit in its miniature suite. Rodgers towers above the decorative neighborhood like a giant. She can lift each building with ease when she wants to reorganize.

The scenic village made of Lefton-brand holiday houses and buildings has been in the making for a number of decades. Only when Rodgers’ collection became large enough was she able to display them as a town on tables inside her reading room of her rural Jasper County home.

To Rodgers, it is a magical place that is simultaneously a sign of the holidays and a reminder of her son’s love.

When her son was just 8 or 9 years old, he gave her the first building of her town as a Christmas gift. It was a small chapel with a light blue roof. The decorative piece shared space on her shelves alongside other festive ornaments. Every year her son, now 45, would give her another to add to the collection.

“I wonder what he’s going to do next,” Rodgers said with a wide grin. “I don’t know what I’m going to do because I’m running out of room! … But it’s what I look forward to each year, getting one or two of these. These are my best Christmas gifts.”

It is a family affair to make Rodgers’ town a reality. For the past few years her grandchildren have taken over the setup and give their grandma a break.

Her grandson hooks up the electrical chords and hides them beneath the tables, allowing Rodgers to turn on all the houses at the flip of a switch. Likewise, her granddaughter adds the finishing touches and flourishes, like the little puffs of cotton sticking out of chimneys and tiny figures dotted throughout the scene.

When the scene is finished, Rodgers will find herself sitting in a nearby chair and enjoying the peace and quiet of the town while reading a book. Her gaze will often stray from the pages to the town in front of her. It reminds her of traditions and of her family and of their love.

“It’s very sentimental for me,” Rodgers said. “It’s just such a nice thing that he started for me. Every year it tickles my heart to see what he brings next.”