When I started to research the elf village, which has been a staple of holiday decor in the Sims home my entire life, I kept seeing the word. Turns out that Putz items, by true definition, are any figures or buildings that when displayed together, told the Bibilical story of the birth of Christ. The term is loosely used for any item that is used under a Christmas tree to create a Christmas garden or yard. Buildings, homemade or mass produced, composition figures and animals, bottle brush trees and any assortment of various accessories. Elaborate “putz” scenes reached their heights in the late 1940s and 1950s when holiday figurines and decorations were sold in the five and dime stores such as Woolworths after World War II, when exports from Japan resumed.
Our elves have spun cotton bodies, some of them sitting on little pine cones others as stand-alones, hand painted faces, chenille trim beards and hair, felt hats, and spun cotton feet. The buildings are made of cardboard and mica and are in surprisingly good shape for their age.
The whold thing makes me very happy. And by that, I mean the village, not the word. :)
