A visit to Christmasville: Kay and Paul Smith's exhibit returns to Smackover

Kim and Paul Smith run Christmasville, a nonprofit exhibit of Christmas trees and villages from their personal collection. This year, the exhibit’s sixth iteration will be in Smackover's old city hall. (Contributed)
Kim and Paul Smith run Christmasville, a nonprofit exhibit of Christmas trees and villages from their personal collection. This year, the exhibit’s sixth iteration will be in Smackover's old city hall. (Contributed)

Christmasville, a long-running project of Kay and Paul Smith, is set to return on Thanksgiving Day at a new location -- 201 E. 7th St. in Smackover, the site of the former city hall.

A carefully arranged maze of themed Christmas trees and elaborate villages complete with festive figurines and even motorized trains, Christmasville is back for its sixth year in Union County after a break in 2020 due to COVID-19.

Looking at the displays, one might suspect the Smiths are somewhat obsessed with Christmas.

Speak with Kay Smith for a time, however, and it becomes apparent that the two are most enamored with the details and craft of putting the exhibit together and the enjoyment others experience when they visit "Christmasville."

The project starts each year with a jumble of red and blurs of green and gold; boxes stuffed with carefully wrapped ornaments; and, generally, a building that needs a bit of work before a single tree is stood up.

The Smiths sought out permission from the Smackover City Council to use the old city hall building over the summer; they started working on installing the exhibit in September.

The couple generally tries to find buildings they can use for the exhibit for free, offering to perform upkeep and maintenance while they're using the facility. In previous years, the Christmasville exhibit has been hosted at the Smith home, an old pool hall in Smackover, a small business in Strong and the Professional Cosmetology Education Center in El Dorado.

The process of putting the exhibit together each year is incredibly labor-intensive, starting with the transport of the Christmas decorations and construction supplies from storage to whichever location it's being displayed in that year. Both of the Smiths work full-time, so they spend evenings and weekends accomplishing the various tasks required to make Christmasville a reality.

Kay Smith handles most of the organizing, outreach and ornaments and comes up with many of the themes for the different Christmas villages featured in the exhibit, while Paul crafts landscapes and backdrops for the villages to inhabit, puts tables together and constructs the villages from their collection.

Kay Smith has expanded the original exhibit to include suggestions visitors shared; for example, she created a "military tree" to display ornaments containing pictures of local veterans. She also added an "old-fashioned tree," complete with hand-knit ornaments.

For each idea, there is a new task added to the Smiths to-do list during Christmasville set-up, such as cutting out photos of veterans or "hometown heroes" and placing them in ornaments for their respective trees.

Paul makes many of his creations from Styrofoam, like stairs, brick walls and imitation fountains for the village displays. He also handles wiring all the villages to include any lights, sounds or movement that the miniature buildings and figures are capable of.

Because of the size of the building in Smackover, not every village in the Smiths' collection -- which range from themes like "carnival" and "seaside" to towns based on major motion pictures, like "It's a Wonderful Life" -- will be displayed this year. However, Kay said they will include the interactive displays for children, along with other popular features of the exhibit.

The bulk of the villages and ornaments come from the Smiths' own collection, which Kay builds through thrifting, auctions and online shopping.

"I've been collecting Christmas houses for over 40 years. I loved them as a kid and started collecting after getting married and having kids. We'd have it in our house and have friends come over and see it for New Year's Eve. We outgrew the house and wanted to share it with people, and the only way to share it was to talk to people and find a building to use," Kay Smith said.

Smith can flip through her scrapbook of past years or walk through the in-progress displays and talk about the person or people who donated, talked about or interacted with each and every display.

Each yearly exhibit is in honor of Kay's late daughter Tammy, who died in a car accident. A special tree is placed in her memory each year, complete with ornaments Kay gifted her as a child.

"All of our donations go to my church, to the Bible college, because she was in Bible college when she got killed. If there aren't any students, we will send it to missions, and it went to buy new [church] vans one year," Smith said.

Christmasville is free for all visitors. Kay Smith emphasizes that the couple take, but do not ask for, donations.

She can recall several moments that make this policy worthwhile.

"If people want to donate, great; if not, that is fine. We keep it free. I was a mother of five kids and single; I couldn't afford to take my kids to the fair or something that costs quite a bit of money. Our first year in El Dorado, we had an elderly man come and knock on the window and ask how much, and I said 'it's free.' He went and got his wife and she lit up like a kid on Christmas Day when she saw it. That's what it's all about; she talked about [remembering] Christmas Day when she was a kid, and that's just the joy of doing this," Smith said.

Visitors can choose to self-guide their trip through Christmasville, or, if they like, take a tour led by Smith that explains the stories behind the displays.

While the displays are impressive without context -- evidenced by pictures of past years' exhibits alone -- having Smith on hand to explain the meaning stowed in the ornaments; to recount the process of creating landscapes from Styrofoam; or to simply tell the stories behind the pictures and villages, gives a sense of the scale, history and degree of care put into the project.

The exhibit is set to open on Thanksgiving Day from 3 until 7 p.m. and will be up and running until Christmas Eve on Fridays and Saturdays from 1 until 9 p.m.

On Christmas Eve, the exhibit will open from 2 until 5 p.m.

Themed Christmas trees, including the Galaxy tree, which shows famous sci-fi characters from properties including "Star Trek," "Star Wars" and "Doctor Who," are a prominent feature of Christmasville. (News-Times file photo)
Themed Christmas trees, including the Galaxy tree, which shows famous sci-fi characters from properties including "Star Trek," "Star Wars" and "Doctor Who," are a prominent feature of Christmasville. (News-Times file photo)
Village exhibits fill Christmasville showing themed portraits of holiday life, including the expansive and detailed Carnival exhibit. (News-Times file photo)
Village exhibits fill Christmasville showing themed portraits of holiday life, including the expansive and detailed Carnival exhibit. (News-Times file photo)
The seaside village at Christmasville features docks made by Paul Smith and fabric that functions as water. (News-Times file photo)
The seaside village at Christmasville features docks made by Paul Smith and fabric that functions as water. (News-Times file photo)
The Christmasville exhibit includes themed villages made with holiday miniatures, Christmas trees filled with ornaments all following different themes and, of course, nativity scenes. (News-Times file)
The Christmasville exhibit includes themed villages made with holiday miniatures, Christmas trees filled with ornaments all following different themes and, of course, nativity scenes. (News-Times file)
Paul Smith wires Christmasville to include any lights, sounds or movement that the miniature buildings and figures are capable of. (News-Times file)
Paul Smith wires Christmasville to include any lights, sounds or movement that the miniature buildings and figures are capable of. (News-Times file)
Paul Smith wires Christmasville to include any lights, sounds or movement that the miniature buildings and figures are capable of. (News-Times file)
Paul Smith wires Christmasville to include any lights, sounds or movement that the miniature buildings and figures are capable of. (News-Times file)
Christmasville includes themed villages made from miniature holiday houses and figurines. Paul Smith enhances the villages' realism by constructing landscapes unique to each set. (News-Times file)
Christmasville includes themed villages made from miniature holiday houses and figurines. Paul Smith enhances the villages' realism by constructing landscapes unique to each set. (News-Times file)
No Christmas exhibit would be complete without nativity scenes. (News-Times file)
No Christmas exhibit would be complete without nativity scenes. (News-Times file)

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