Everyone has something they absolutely love about the Christmas season. Anything from eating candy canes, snowball fights, gift wrapping, or decorating the tree. For the Miller family, the best thing about Christmas is putting out their ceramic Christmas village. Bruce and Erin Miller build a massive village every year. The village they built for this Christmas Season became a big part of some people's holidays. 

This year, they dedicated their entire garage to the village and they started putting everything together as early as October 1st. The Miller's have been collecting ceramic houses and figurines for the last 10 years with the hopes of creating an ultimate village for anyone to come enjoy.

"It's constantly evolving. Like we shop online, we go to garage sales, we go places (and) buy new, and the salvation army we've been there, and value village is another contributor. You know, we don't have 2 of anything," says Bruce Miller.

This is the couple's third Christmas in Moose Jaw but this was the first year that their ceramic village was open for the public to see. The Miller's first Christmas season was occupied with moving and settling into the friendly city. They were able to have the ceramic village built for their second Christmas in 2020 but due to COVID-19 restrictions, they weren't able to allow any locals to come to see it. This year's Christmas season shaped out to be a better opportunity for them to show off the Miller Christmas Village.

When Erin Miller was asked how many pieces it took to put the entire village together she said, "I have no idea... over 100 I'm sure.".

Their entire garage was turned into a mini Christmas wonderland. The walls a traped in white with bright lights dancing off the walls. Instrumental Christmas tunes play in the background as all of the ceramic houses are lit up and in motion.

"It's kind of a hobby if you want to call it that. That will never quit evolving. I mean, there's pieces in here actually from the 1940s, 1950s. Some of them are new (from) last year because we didn't buy any new ones this year but there's some that are very collectible. They're worth 5 times what they were when they were new," says Bruce Miller.

Now that the year is coming to an end, they're ready to put the village away until next year. The Miller's had about 70 visitors come and enjoy their Christmas village. While they were presenting the village, they were also collecting donations for Salvation Army. Throughout the month they've raised $282 plus a couple of bags of food. They gave the donation to Salvation Army on Thursday, December 30th. The Millers hope to make this a continuous fundraiser for the Salvation Army and plan to open it again next Christmas season.