MANILA, Philippines—At a gated community in Quezon City lies a well-kept Christmas secret—tiny cities dotted with pine trees, twinkling with lights, and spread out across layers of make-believe snow.

On a cool evening, children from the community would beg to see the vast display of people, houses, banks, restaurants, cars, buses, horses and a train—even if these are no bigger than a child’s hand.

“Wow!” was all a 9-year-old girl could say after gazing at the small ferris wheel at the carnival in one section of businesswoman Mian Topacio’s “Christmas village.”

A woman reminded her son not to touch the fragile Santa Claus coming out of his house. Later, she herself would gingerly poke at the figure as if to prod it to hurry up with its deliveries.

“Just seeing a child say ‘Wow’ and become speechless, or watch them smile as they go about the display … I’m happy. I know it’s worth opening it to the public,” Topacio, 53, said in an interview.

The 65-square-meter “village,” sprawled out on the porch of Topacio’s home, boasts of 215 houses, 600 people and animals, 1,200 trees, 100 fixtures like fences and tables, 40 light sets, 15 cars, a train, 42 moving accessories and 10 Nativity sets—enough to awe the crankiest visitor.

A tiny air balloon hovers above the heads of visitors as it slowly descends, gliding from one section of the village to another.

A wide expanse of false snow, made of styrofoam, and the pine trees give the scene a winter-like effect.

A dream is born
Citing security concerns, Topacio requested that the exact address of her Christmas village, located in an exclusive community near the Batasan complex, be not mentioned in print. The village is not open to the public, but only to acquaintances and neighbors.

It took Topacio’s team of five out-of-school boys a month to finish working on the intricate details and layout of the Christmas village.

“It was fun working on it. All of us felt like we were just playing, that we were kids again, when we finally finished it,” Topacio chuckled.

Her interest in Christmas villages began 10 years ago while on a visit to her children’s pediatrician, who had her own collection at home.

“I was really awed. It made me want to collect small houses of my own, for my kids to enjoy, too,” she recalled.

From fancy to passion
Topacio’s initial set of six houses in 1995 easily fitted on the top of a drawer in her living room. But soon, the sheer childlike fun of making her own village turned her fancy into a passion.

She began hunting for famous brands of miniatures, like Mr. Christmas or Department 56, while looking for cheap bargains of tiny houses, Santas and moving carousels during her trips to America.

“Whenever I’m abroad, if I come across a certain piece, I think of a story behind it. That’s how I come up with my yearly design for the Christmas village,” Topacio said.

She also scans magazines and books for inspiration on her next design. Sometimes, she embellishes her fantasies of what winter is like and tries to fit it on her porch.

At times, Topacio spends an hour of her night just gazing at her creation—“and I don’t tire of it even if I was the one who made it!”

A village for Santa
The display is divided into several sections (“cities”) each with its own theme—a mountain town with a river, a Victorian-era village, a modern city, and a port area, as well as a circus with Ferris wheels, carousels and other rides.

For commercial touch, Topacio made sure that her Christmas village also has banks, churches, restaurants, grocery stores, dance halls, and—for the sweet-toothed—a Krispy Kreme store.

And, of course, a Christmas village wouldn’t be one without a snow village and a Santa village. complete with Santa’s workshop and his dwarfs.

Topacio declined to say how much is her collection worth.

She opened her doors to neighbors only three years ago, and she has not regretted the decision ever since.

“You could see it in their eyes when they gaze at the houses, the dancing people. They all feel like kids again,” she said.