Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

Building her Christmas Village every year is one of the many activities that keep 90-year-old Leonora Grannum alert and active. This year, the scaled down version of her village is displayed at her home on Gallus Street, Woodbrook, Port-of-Spain.
The village is a detailed reproduction of a small-town American village and features many familiar sights as portrayed in books and movies. Grannum said she’s been building the village for over 20 years.

“When I lived in Florida, I used to buy a live Christmas tree which was six feet tall and two feet wide. One year my daughter and her friends bought a tree that was four feet tall and a foot wide. So I said what am I going to do with this tree? But after seeing a Christmas showcase I made a story. My story was, once upon a time there was a village, and the elders of the village always put up a Christmas tree at Christmas time for the villagers, but this particular year, they had no funds to put up this tree for the villagers and the good fairy heard their problem and she brought a beautiful tree and Christmas morning when the villagers got up, there was this huge Christmas tree that the farmers could see way across on their farms, and I built a village around the tree, and that’s how I started my village.”

The village contains a ski resort area, residential districts, schools, a cathedral, a castle with attached gardens, and a shopping area surrounding a park. Within the park can be seen flower sellers, a woman feeding pigeons, a magician, children with pets, carollers, couples, families, toy sellers, a farmers market, artists, Santa with children, people shopping, a news stand, a carousel and other figures.

Grannum said it would be nice if more people got involved in making villages, “because it is an expression and it is something that you think about all the time, how am I going to do it up, you have something to look forward to at Christmas that is different to just a Christmas tree.”
Granum was born in Trinidad and attended Sacred Heart Girls RC before moving to the United States in 1969. She became a nurse and lived in New York for 21 years before moving to Florida and eventually back to Trinidad. She has three children, seven grandchildren, one great-grandchild and one on the way.
Grannum aid she would love people to come and look at the village. “I’d like children from schools and orphanages and homes to see it, because it changes you as a child, when you see something like this. It touches everyone who sees it. I’d enjoy children coming to see what a village abroad and the homes look like.”
Grannum’s granddaughter Shara said Grannum insists on doing all the work in putting together the village. “It’s all her imagination and her mind. I think some part of her wants us to love it as much as she does so when she’s gone she knows we’ll continue. She does it in hope that people will come and get joy.”

Grannum also creates needlework pieces which rival paintings. Shara said she’s seen her working on some piece or other for over 30 years, and they hold a place in her memory as she was growing up.

Grannum played mas until her 70s and still enjoys Carnival. “I can’t move around as much as I did before and then most of my colleagues have gone before me so I’m lonely. The things I enjoy for Carnival, most people I know don’t take part in it. I love every aspect of Carnival. To me Carnival represented art, and I enjoyed it as such, the steelband players, the steelband music, even the way we chip is a form of art, the costumes, the calypsoes are poetry and that’s how I enjoyed Carnival. And now my dear friends have departed before me and I just have my Christmas to look forward to.”
Grannum said she loves Christmas and what it represents. “I love the idea and the history behind Christmas because it represents a person that has produced so much and has taught so much. There are other religions and I’m sure they preach much of what he was preaching too, love your neighbour, attend to the sick, don’t look to fret with your neighbour, don’t look to covet your neighbour’s wife, help people, love people. I love the way he reacted with people generally and when I’m in trouble I call him.”