A longtime Upper Cumberland restaurant owner cooks up something special this time of year, constructing a 300-piece Christmas village every year, each figure modeling a real location.
Helen’s Restaurant Owner Carol Pippin said she and her mother began building the village together in 1988. Pippin said the collection began with a few houses, placing one or two village figurines in the windows of the restaurant. Pippin said her mother kept adding figures to the collection.
It’s kinda been a staple here for so many years,” Pippin said. “And, you know, that’s kinda one of the reasons so many people love coming at Christmas time. They can come back here and I’ve been told so many times over the years that every time they look at it they can find something different.”
Pippin said she decorates with two thirds of her collection of figurines, as the collection is too large to fully display.
Pippin announced last week she planned to sell Helen’s Restaurant, but do not fear. The good food and the village will both be on good display this holiday.
Pippin begins placing the village pieces near Halloween to have the village completed by Thanksgiving Day. Pippin takes nearly 23 hours to place the figures along various sized shelves.
“I’ve been running a little bit behind this year because we’ve been so busy, but the village is up,” Pippin said. “I don’t have it lit up yet, but it can be done at any time.”
Pippin said she comes from a family of business women who took pride in decorating their businesses for Christmas. Pippin said her aunt owned a drive in restaurant a long time ago, inspiring her mother to collect and build the village.
“Over the years, it started building and we moved it to a table,” Pippin said. “And then my dad, he built us some shelves so we could kind of put it up against the walls”
Pippin said the collection rests on a four-tier high group of shelves. Pippin said her husband contributed more shelves to the original shelves her father made.
Pippin said she hopes the display can fill hearts with Christmas spirit this year.
“We put it all together and it looks like a little city,” Pippin said, “And we love it, our customers love it.”
Pippin said her mother chose the Snow Village figurines because they are modeled after real places, such as the Jack Daniel’s distillery.
