The short answer
Original boxes if you have them, inside a rigid bin. If you do not, use an adjustable divider box with bays merged to each building's size. Bulbs out and in their own divided box, cords coiled and bagged per piece. Never loose in a tote.
Why a tote is the wrong instinct
A village looks like a bin problem because the pieces are large. It is not. Ceramic buildings are fragile, irregularly shaped, and vary from a two-inch tree to an eight-inch church, which is precisely the profile that a divided container handles and a tote does not.
Put six buildings loose in a 27-gallon tote with tissue between them and they will move against each other every time the bin is carried. Chimneys, spires and porch posts are the parts that break, and they break by contact rather than by impact — the same failure mode as glass ornaments.
The original-box rule
Village manufacturers ship their pieces in fitted foam or molded card, shaped to that exact building. Nothing you can buy afterwards matches that, because it was designed around the object.
So: keep them. Every year, put each piece back in its own box. Then put those boxes inside a rigid latching bin rather than stacking them loose, because a cardboard box on the bottom of a stack collapses and the fitted insert stops being fitted.
A 27-gallon Stacker publishing 20 1/8 by 14 1/8 by 18 7/8 inches inside takes a surprising number of village boxes standing upright, and the published interior height is what lets you check before buying. Figures on bins by capacity.
If the boxes are long gone
An adjustable-divider ornament box is the best general-purpose answer. The Simple Houseware publishes 48 interlocking dividers with seven slots each, which lets you build a bay to each building's footprint rather than forcing a house into a 3-inch square.
Build the layout empty, measure each building, and merge bays to suit. A typical village house at 5 by 4 inches takes four merged 3-inch bays. A church at 8 inches takes nine. The arithmetic is the same as for oversized ornaments.
The cords and bulbs
- 1
Take the bulb out of every piece
A bulb left in a socket is the most breakable part of the whole assembly, and a broken bulb inside a ceramic building is difficult to get out.
- 2
Put the bulbs in a divided rigid box
A small parts box with compartments, or a pill organizer. Not a bag, where they roll against each other.
- 3
Coil each cord and tape it to its piece
A loose coil taped to the base of the building it belongs to. Then you never have to work out which cord goes where.
- 4
Bag any adapters or power strips separately
Label the bag. Adapters are the item most often missing next December.
- 5
Photograph the display before you dismantle it
Village layouts are elaborate and easy to forget. One photo saves a lot of guessing.
Trees, figures and snow
The small accessories are where a village collection becomes unmanageable: dozens of two-inch figures, bottle-brush trees, fences, and a bag of artificial snow.
Those belong in a standard 3-inch divided grid, which is exactly what an ornament box is, so a single 128-slot box handles the entire accessory collection with capacity to spare. Keep the snow separate and sealed — it gets everywhere and it is the one component that will coat everything else in the bin.
Where it should be stored
The conditioned part of the house if you can, because a village is mostly painted detail and glued joints, both of which dislike repeated temperature cycling more than the ceramic itself does.
If it has to go in a garage or attic, a rigid latching bin off the floor is the minimum. The full comparison of the three usual locations is on attic versus garage versus basement.