Some people collect stamps for a hobby. Others are constantly on the lookout for rare coins or bottles.

Sandra Lathan has a passion for porcelain items and using them to create a Christmas Wonderland, something she has been doing for the last four years at her home.

Each December the Hamilton Parish resident takes over her husband Davis' games room, puts plywood on the pool table, covers it with white sheets, and goes to work creating villages with the hundreds of pieces she has in her collection.

Davis will finally get his favourite room in the house back in time for his birthday in mid-February when the collection comes down.

"He's the first one to say I can't have his games room but the first one to show it (collection) off,'' said Mrs. Lathan this week as she put the finishing touches to this year's collection.

"I think he really gets a kick out of it. I usually keep it up for a month and a half. I know he likes to have his pool table back.'' Mrs. Lathan, herself, also gets tremendous joy from seeing the finished product as the hundreds of pieces -- including 80 houses, each with lights, six churches and Christmas trees, fences, benches, a flower shop, train track, a bank and people -- are all put in place to resemble villages within a town or city.

Several bags of fake snow, and even wood shavings and real flowers, help complete the wonderland which takes several of weeks to set up.

"There are a lot of limited edition pieces that will become collectors' items,'' said Mrs. Lathan who insists that nothing is for sale.

"I don't care what they offer me,'' she says.

The valuable collection includes a 2000 townhouse and Millennium bank which have already been retired and can't be purchased.

"I will use them because they are a collectors' item, but you can't purchase it,'' she explained.

It all began in 1995 when Mrs. Lathan visited some friends in Kingston, New York and saw their collection. She was immediately hooked and the following year started her own collection with just a few pieces. Each year it gets bigger and bigger.

This year the collection is the biggest so far, sitting on top of three pieces of plywood on the pool table and measuring eight feet by 12 feet. Lights everywhere give the display a surreal feeling.

Next year Mrs. Lathan plans to move the collection to another room in the house and with some new pieces and new ideas, plans to make it even bigger.

Some of those new pieces have started to arrive by mail and when she travels again in February, Mrs. Lathan will pick up more. She usually knows what she wants beforehand, from leafing through catalogues.

"To tell you the truth with me travelling or having it shipped I haven't had one piece break,'' she says of the delicate pieces.

"That's one thing I don't have a problem with so far -- , the shipping. There are a few more pieces that I have ordered but unfortunately they didn't come in time for this year.

"They sent it by parcel post and it's not going to get here. But I would have made space for it, I would have gotten it in. There is another theme I want to do for next year.'' As well as the centrepiece in the middle of the floor, Mrs. Lathan also has musical pieces along two of the walls. Even the Christmas tree stand moves swivels to the sound of music.

It is a hobby that the whole family enjoys, with son Shawn helping set it up.

Sandra Furbert, a friend of Mrs. Lathan, helped to get the pieces in the right places.

"The first time I saw it was two years ago, I think it's beautiful,'' she says.

"We stayed up until two o'clock one morning just figuring out the scheme.'' Mrs. Lathan doesn't even know how many pieces she has or the total cost of the collection. But she is heartbroken when a piece breaks.

One year she was almost in tears when a little boy came to see the display and broke a train. She doesn't mind sharing her collection with people but has a strict `don't touch' rule that she applies.

"Another year a little boy came with his mother and broke three heads off the people. He had the heads in his hands and the body was still on the table,'' she recalled.

"I don't mind people looking but please do not touch. I get very hurt when they are broken. They can get very expensive. I do it as a hobby and get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

"Every year it gets bigger and better because I add more pieces to it.''