By Michele Day
Enquirer contributor

Ruth and Gary Melton keep much of the Deptartment 56 Christmas village collection they started for their son in a custom-built case. (Brandi Stafford photo)

At 7-years-old, Jason Melton was captivated by the toy-like clapboard buildings, flashing lighthouses and miniature red sleighs of the Department 56 New England Village.

His parents, Gary and Ruth Melton, bought him a starter collectible kit that included a general store, apothecary shop, red schoolhouse, brick townhouse, church with steeple, butcher shop and farmhouse. Setting up the villages and shopping for new pieces became a Christmas tradition at the Melton house.

Fourteen years later, Jason has long outgrown the toys of his childhood. And the family's Department 56 collection is about to outgrow their Crittenden home.

The Meltons devote a glass-covered 10-foot-tall by 20-foot-wide case to a year-round display of more than 200 village buildings and accessories - including not only that original New England cottage but the brightly colored homes of Santa and friends in Department 56's North Pole series and biblical scenes from the Holy Land, Little Town of Bethlehem series.

"When we moved into our new house three years ago, it took me longer to move the display and set it up than it did to unpack the whole rest of the house," Gary Melton says, laughing.

Christmas collectibles - from the picturesque Department 56 villages to sparkling crystal ornaments shaped like stars, angels and Christmas trees by Swarovski to hand-painted glass snowmen, Santas and Nativity scenes by Christopher Radko to delicate porcelain figurines by Lladro - seem to captivate people of all ages at this time of the year.

WEB SITES

• Department 56 • Christopher Radko • Swarovski • Lladro • M.I. Hummel • Larry Fraga Designs • Byers Choice • Anri

We asked three avid collectors and two retailers who specialize in collectibles to help us put together a list of some of the season's top keepsakes and help explain what makes them so special.

Department 56

The Meltons' favorite collectible, with its lighted village scenes and Snowbabies figurines, has remained a steady favorite for almost 25 years, says Jill Cowman, marketing director for Story Book Kids in Evendale and Florence."It kind of goes back to the old concept of why everybody likes trains under their Christmas trees," Cowman says. "It's a family thing, something they can enjoy and put together. And you may build it this way one year, and the next year set it up differently."Prices for Department 56 range $45-$90 for the houses and $18-$35 for accessories.

Swarovski

Two 3/4-inch-tall crystal lovebirds helped match Tom and Jane Warner of Union , Ohio, with their favorite collectibles.

The couple's children gave them the lovebirds as an anniversary gift in 1984. Since then, the Warners have added more than 1,100 Swarovski pieces, including a rare chaton (a diamond-shaped cut of crystal) that's 111/2 inches in diameter and weighs 44 pounds.

"It doesn't seem to get old like some things do," Tom Warner says. "Every time you look at it, it looks different." Shining a light into the glass produces spectacular rainbows of colors, he adds. "It's almost like a fireworks display."

The Warners' interest in Swarovski is more intense than most. They self-publish an annual reference book, Warner's Blue Ribbon Book on Swarovski Crystal ($55 black and white; $125 color, from www.wbrb.com), that features more than 400 photographs of pieces from their collection. And they're organizing their second Swarovski Collector's Affair, a convention planned for this summer at the Drawbridge Inn in Fort Mitchell.

Most people who see Swarovski find it irresistible, says Marie Russo, owner of Saxony Imports in downtown Cincinnati.

"A woman looks at a crystal Swarovski and it reminds them of a diamond," she says.

Prices for Swarovski pieces range from $120 to more than $5,000.

Christopher Radko

On the weekend after Thanksgiving, Patty Dixon of Loveland surrounds herself with more than 300 hand-painted glass ornaments, from motorized carousels to characters from the Wizard of Oz to the Aqualine mermaid that launched her hobby when she spotted it in a gift shop almost a decade ago.

"I can't decorate until I have all my babies out," Dixon says. "They make me happy. I have a 10-foot tree that's 5-feet across on the bottom and it has nothing but Radko there."

Dixon appreciates the individuality of Radko ornaments.

"Each piece has its own personality," she says. "If you look at five or six of the same ornament, all the faces are different ... With a lot of other artists, the ornaments are too perfect. They're done on machines and everything is exactly the same."

Story Book Kids, which is designated a Radko Starlight store because of the volume of the merchandise that it sells and the expertise of its employees in the line, devotes more than 2,000 square feet of space in its Evendale store exclusively to the European-style collectibles, Cowman says.

Prices range from $22 to several thousand dollars.

Lladro

Three brothers - Juan, Jose and Vicente Lladro of Almacera, Spain - began hand-painting porcelain sculptures in muted shades of gray, blue and mauve during the 1950s.

Today, collectors from 120 countries purchase Lladro Nativity scenes, angels, elves and other figurines. It's the attention to detail - such as the individually separated fingers on the hands and the tone of the skin color, that makes them special, says Saxony's Russo. "They're beautiful."