I have viewed your Utube show a few times and am really happy that I stumbled upon your blog site.
I am a serious collector with more than 250 houses and literally 1000s of figures and accessories.
I would just like to add to your comments about setting up a village. Most people make the mistake of having neat streets and the houses facing forward. This is a mistake ! The human eye is trained to judge distance and size from the straight lines forming perspective. I have always placed my buildings slightly askew from each other, and facing about 30 degrees from front-on to the viewing side. If the display is liberally scattered with trees of many different sizes, styles, color and texture, this adds further to the “randomness” and makes it harder for the eye to pick out the ral size of the display.
I seldom use more than 50% of my collection in any single display. The important thing to me is not the number of buildings you can pack into the designated area, it is imitating the real world and creating the best atmosphere.

Finally, here is a link to my hosted photos on webshots in case you and your readership are interested in seeing my past efforts. The Christmas Tree displays have been viewed most often. I would love to correspond with you regularly to exchange ideas.

webshots/iamback107

I also have a youtube video on the Lemax Christmas Village site : checkout lemaxnut.