Cheer and loathing

Photograph: Chad Batka

Luz Rios

“I don’t call it an obsession!” laughs Luz Rios, only a little defensively, about her seasonal fixation. “It’s just that Christmas is my favorite holiday. My father was born on December 23, so he celebrated the whole month. That’s why it’s always been special to me.”

So special, in fact, that the decorating starts in August, when the 45-year-old postal worker clears the furniture from the living and dining rooms in her Bronx apartment in order to build an expansive holiday village out of miniature ceramic houses, populating it with tiny people, electric trains, cars and even planes. Having spent more than $16,000 on the collection over the past four years, Rios says it’s one of her biggest expenses—and a priority in her life. She recently moved into an apartment almost large enough to accommodate her rapidly growing collection, which now includes more than 600 houses and countless figurines and vehicles (the rest is in a storage space devoted solely to the miniatures).

“I had some savings, but I used them all up,” Rios says, explaining that the 4-to-12-inch houses can cost up to $600 each on eBay. “It’s worth it to me because they’re all collectibles.” She isn’t satisfied to leave her Christmas decor (which also includes two ceiling-scraping pine trees) at home: Every year, the Bronx native carts a couple hundred miniatures to the post office where she works, spending dozens of unpaid hours setting up a village that holiday-harried New Yorkers can enjoy. “The kids come running,” Rios says, “and even grown-ups stay for five or ten minutes just to look.” The hard part, of course, is when the season is over and all the festive pieces have to be put away. That’s when Rios has to face the long months until August, when the holiday season starts again.

SEE IT
The holiday village is at the 125th Street Post Office (365 W 125th St between Manhattan and Morningside Aves) until January 6.

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