Most people have a Christmas village that they display for the holidays, and I want one too. But mine will be completely built out of Legos. I have some of the common sets that came out in years past, like the firehouse and Santa's Workshop, but as you try to prepare for more buildings, sometimes a great idea is right in front of you.
As I stood at the Lego store, there was an actual set of the store, and I kept looking at it, because I wondered if I could take out the white elements, and replace them with the brown ones, that were common in the other holiday sets. So I bought the set, and construction began.
Below is rough draft of the completed Lego store, in it's new updated holiday look. Looked good, but those random white and gray bricks weren't doing it for me. Luckily, my Lego store had some 1 x 2 tiles of the same color, and that allowed my to try and update the store again.
And below is the final draft, which I am quite happy with. The gray base plates and random white bricks support the structure, so those will remain as is. Otherwise, I think all the colors blend well.
If you too are building a Lego Christmas village, this set runs at about $25 US, so about a 1/4 of the cost of the normal Holiday sets. How you choose to upgrade it, is up to you.