JASON BENITEZ can't help but think of his mother when he proudly surveys the expansive and intricate miniature Christmas village filling the den in his Spotsylvania County home.
She may have passed away in 1995, but when he looks over the wonder-filled holiday landscape that includes a city, a town square, a farm, a dock and an area filled with vendors, the Bronx-raised 36-year-old feels a special connection.
"When I was 18 and just out of high school, I got a place of my own and decorated a tree," said Benitez, who a few years back retired from the Marine Corps and took a job with Northrop Grumman in Washington.
"My mom and I started a rivalry of sorts, to see who had the nicer tree. I could never really come close to hers, because she had all sorts of neat old ornaments."
But on that first Christmas on his own, Benitez's mother, Catalina, gave him something that started a new Christmas tradition.
"The first four houses for my Christmas village came from her that first year, as a gift," he said, inspecting an array which now includes more than 55 houses, more than 1,400 people and such other items as a working carousel and a town walk and skating rink where people are constantly in motion.
"I never could compete with her on Christmas trees, " he said, adding "but soon, I had something under my tree that she couldn't match, a village that's grown every year."
Like other local collectors who spend countless hours each year buying, repairing, designing and setting up miniature Christmas villages to complement their trees, Benitez gets a special joy each year putting out a new display.
In honor of his mother, he's formally named his town Catalinaville.
In recent years, the huge display has had to expand up as well as out, with Styrofoam and cotton covering up boxes and boards that elevate the wonderland and the networks of wires and supports underneath.
"Some people just collect Department 56, others just Dickensville, but I look for anything that makes sense in my village," he said. "And I've never spent a lot of money on any piece. It's about whether it fits and whether I can afford it."
Beyond that, he said, the display has come to include pieces that mirror his life with his wife, Kathy, and 3-month-old daughter, Ariana.
"I've got a Marine Corps color guard, to represent my time in the Corps, a bride and groom, which I got soon after getting married, and lately, a mother with a baby, for my beautiful young daughter," said Benitez, who says he's lucky that his wife also enjoys the village.
To give it even more of a local feel, the couple named one of the many buildings in it "The Pear Tree," after one of their favorite shops, near Spotsylvania Courthouse.
Benitez said that what made creating a Christmas village a passionate hobby for him was a visit from a co-worker near the beginning of his collection.
"He brought his daughter, who just plopped down on the floor with her chin on her hands and looked at it for almost an hour," he said. "That excitement for children is what made me want to keep it going."
Today, friends and neighbors in the couple's subdivision near Massaponax are frequent visitors.
There's only one firm rule for kids: "They can touch anything. They can pick up anything. It's here for them and I want them to enjoy it."
Surprisingly enough, that rule doesn't lead to problems with the tiny, delicate pieces.
"Most of the things that get broken are broken by adults," he said, smiling. "Even then, I can fix the stuff. A little glue, a little paint and they're good again."
This year, a roomful of furniture had to be moved to make room for the village.
Next year, Benitez said he hopes to move the whole shooting match to the basement, where it will have even more room to spread out.
A favorite of his is a group of vendors--an artist carving a carousel animal, a boy selling hot chocolate, a jam-and-jelly seller, a Santa posing for pictures with children--that he hopes visitors see.
"The detail and workmanship on many of these pieces is amazing," said the village-designer whose birthday just happens to be today. "To appreciate that, you have to get down at floor level and spend some time looking."
He does, and implores most visitors to do the same.
"The young ones do it naturally," he notes. "I can't wait until my daughter is old enough to enjoy it all."
To reach ROB HEDELT: 540/374-5415 rhedelt@freelancestar.com