Mum spends four years building a Christmas village in her garden for less than £100

As lovely as your tinsel and baubles may be, we reckon Joanna Sands has you beaten in the festivity stakes.

The mum loves Christmas so much she’s spent four years crafting an entire festive village in the garden of her home, complete with a handmade church, nativity scene, and a gingerbread house.

This year sees the addition of a Christmas bakery scene to the home in Swanley, Kent.

As well as doing all the building herself with help from her husband, Joanna managed to keep costs down too, saying she’s spent less than £100 in total for the ‘100% handmade, 99% free’ project.

This year’s bakery cost just £20 to make, with Joanna making the most of free pallets, offcuts of wood and paint tester pots.

Joanna Sand's nativity scene she built by hand
Joanna started with the nativity scene (Picture: Joanna Sands/Deadline News)

Joanna said: ‘We started by making the nativity one year with some old pallets we had and offcuts of wood.

‘My husband does the building part. We design it together and I cut the characters out of wood then paint them. We really liked it and had lots of children coming to see it, so the following year we made the gingerbread house and did same thing again.

‘Every August we start building and creating. It’s all painted with any paint we can get emulsion, gloss, acrylic then yacht varnish over the top

‘Each year we give it all touch-up and add a new thing.’

homemade christmas bakery in festive scene in garden
This year’s addition is a bakery scene (Picture: Joanna Sands/Deadline News)

The garden’s village now includes a bakery (with faux baked goods made of salt dough), the Nativity scene that got everything started, a gingerbread house, and a church, complete with stained glass windows, a bell tower, and a group of carolers.

Oh, and there are a load of twinkling lights, just to add some extra sparkle.

gingerbread house in Joanna Sands' garden
There’s a gingerbread house too (Picture: Joanna Sands/Deadline News)

Joanna shared photos and video of her garden on Facebook, where her creation was flooded with praise from strangers inspired by all the handiwork.

Next year the mum plans to add a little Christmas cottage or a toy shop.

‘It’s a long process as we have to fit it in between work and our kids, but they enjoy helping too,’ says Joanna.

‘It’s been about £100 over the years, excluding lights which we had because we are Christmas mad.

‘I’m glad people like it and its given them ideas on what they can do without spending lots or any money. I didn’t expect it to go quite as far as it has online.’

Do you have a brilliant DIY project you fancy sharing? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@metro.co.uk

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source https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/12/mum-spends-four-years-building-christmas-village-garden-less-100-11781626/
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