Barb Lund

Barbara Lund began her Department 56 career working with her father, Neilan Lund, who originally brought the idea of Dickens’ Village to Department 56 in the mid -1980s and has designed Village pieces for Dickens’ Village, New England Village, and the North Pole for the last 29 years.
When the Villages became increasingly more popular Neilan needed someone who could assist him doing research on the history and architecture of each piece. Barbara also spent time learning the precise art of designing the houses. When Neilan retired, she stepped in to take the reins and now is well versed in creating the buildings doing extensive research to make the pieces extremely authentic. “Our options in design are almost limitless so long as the factories have the technologies to create what we have asked for. Now having said that, we do push the envelope a bit each year. As the Department 56 team is fond of saying, ‘these little houses are not widgets.’ Sometimes we ask factories to solve challenges, and once they find the solution, we have something new to offer our collectors.”
One of Barbara’s favorite parts of designing buildings for Department 56 is “meeting the many people who took long, and sometimes very long trips to meet me. This would be true for all the artists and I bet we all find it pretty humbling. I know, I do.”
With her imminent retirement in 2019, Barbara designed one final Dickens’ Village piece that is destined to become a special part of every collectors’ Village – the “Russell Street Books”. She will be attending three special events where collectors can buy and have the piece personally signed. These stores and their locations can be found on the Department 56 Events calendar. The piece honors the whole Lund family as Russell Street was name of the street where Neilan and his wife Ruth raised their daughters who have all participated in the Villages since their first introduction in 1984.
Department 56, the leader and gold standard in lighted collectible Villages, is part of the Enesco family of brands and is located in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
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BRANDS
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Villages
- American Pride Collection
- Village Prepacks
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- Silver Series
- Limited Editions
- Holiday Special Sets
- Alpine Village
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- Christmas in the City
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- Dickens Village
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- Dickens A Christmas Carol
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- Holy Land Little Town of Bethlehem
- New England Village
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- North Pole Series
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- Original Snow Village
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- Snow Village Halloween
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- Village Accessories
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- Village Halloween Accessories
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- Village Friends
- A Christmas Story Village
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- Disney Village
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- Elf The Movie
- Grinch Villages
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- Harry Potter Village
- Hot Properties Village
- Margaritaville Village
- Nightmare Before Christmas VLG
- Peanuts Village
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- Promotional Village
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- Auth Village Art
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- Snowbabies
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- Christmas
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- Flourish
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Studio Brands
- FAO Schwarz
- Promotional Classic Brands
- Crayola
- Dairy Queen
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- DC COMICS
- DC Comics by Our Name Is Mud
- Disney
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- Disney Ceramics
- Dr. Seuss
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- The Elf on the Shelf
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- Grinch
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- Margaritaville
- Norman Rockwell
- Peanuts
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- Peanuts Ceramics
- PIXAR Ceramics
- Pusheen by Our Name Is Mud
- Pusheen
- Rudolph
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- Scooby Doo Ceramics
- Wizard of Oz by ONIMD
- Facets
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- Possible Dreams
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- Snowpinion
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- All Other Seasonal
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- PRODUCTS
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- OCCASIONS
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COLLECTIONS
- 2020 Village Retirements
- 2020 SnowBabies Retirements
- 2020 Possible Dreams Retirements
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- 2020 Mid-Year Village
- 101 Dalmatians
- 2019 Village Retirements
- 2019 Snowbabies Retirements
- 2019 Possible Dreams Retirements
- Addams Family
- Alice in Wonderland
- Beauty and the Beast
- Christmas Story
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- Country Living
- DC Comics
- Disney
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- Disney Other
- Disney Villains
- Dr. Seuss
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- Fantasia
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- Gifts from the Heart
- Grinch
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- Harry Potter
- The Lion King
- Lilo and Stitch
- The Little Mermaid
- March Village Retirement Sale
- Margaritaville
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- Mickey Mouse
- Minnie Mouse
- The Munsters
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- Norman Rockwell
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- PEANUTS
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- Pet
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- Pusheen
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- Rudolph
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- Seasonal Holiday
- Snowman
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- Tinker Bell
- Toy Story
- Unicorns
- Winnie the Pooh and Friends
- Wizard of Oz
- Crayola
- FAO Schwarz
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- SALE