Merry Moments LED Holiday Village House Aldi Food Market

Last Updated on November 3, 2023

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Aldi sold a similar holiday village Aldi store, along with some other holiday village buildings, for a lower price of $12.99 each in 2023. 

Every year after Thanksgiving, I bring up a handful of boxes from the basement, dust them off, and set up my Christmas village in the garden window over my kitchen sink. I received the first pieces of my Christmas village — including a man and woman with a baby in a carriage — when I was pregnant with my first child. Since then, my family has given me buildings and accessories over the years, so now my kitchen window is pretty full.

Despite the fact that my windowsill is nearly at capacity, I had to buy just one more piece for my village this year: a miniature Aldi market.

I saw enough hype about these Aldi markets on social media that I made sure to head out to my local store soon after it opened on the day it was scheduled to arrive on shelves. I don’t think these will last long. When I paid for it at the register, the Aldi cashier remarked, “You must really like Aldi.” Yes, indeed.

Aldi is no stranger to selling fan merchandise. In the spring of 2022, the grocer sold a gear capsule collection that included Aldi-branded products such as socks, water bottles, pajamas, and more. They also sold a children’s play Aldi market with play food last spring. This mini holiday village market is admittedly one of the more charming items Aldi has sold that bears its own logo.

The Merry Moments LED Holiday Village House Food Market costs $14.99 at the time of publication. That’s cheaper than what you’ll pay for other kinds of Christmas village buildings, and you’re not likely to find an Aldi building anywhere else. This Aldi market was sold alongside some other buildings to create a complete Christmas village. Other buildings include a toy store and an outdoor Christmas tree shop.

The Aldi market features a familiar square, blocky Aldi building complete with “automatic doors.” The building’s exterior is decked out with an Aldi sign and trimmed with green holiday garlands and red bows with a bit of snow. Small pine trees flank the doors, and on one side of the building, there’s even a corral for shopping carts.

Doesn’t every Aldi store have a quaint stone path leading to the front doors?

This is an Aldi Find, so it’s only in stores for a limited time. Aldi does not restock its Aldi Finds, and they don’t offer online ordering for products that aren’t at your local store.

Here’s more information about the building:

• Lighted holiday village house runs on 2 AA batteries (included)
• Includes 6-hour on/18-hour off timer function
• Dimensions: 7 inches x 4 inches x 5.8 inches
• Made in China

There’s even a cart corral on the side of the store.

I had to pull harder than usual to remove the “try me” cord from the bottom of this house. Part of the trouble may be because the “try me” cord runs up through to cardboard packaging and leads to a “try me” button at the top left of the package. To remove the cord from the building, simply give a firm tug. You can watch a video about how to remove the cord from similar Aldi decorations here.

The ON / OFF switch on the back of the store.

To turn the lights on, slide the switch to the ON position. To turn the lights off, slide the switch to the OFF position. To activate the timer, slide the switch to the ON position and leave it there. The lights will automatically turn off after 6 hours and turn back on at the same time each day.

This setup is slightly different from how most Aldi light-up ceramic decorations operate, typically with a middle setting on the ON / OFF switch where the timer setting is located, so you have to deliberately set it to the timer function. Basically, with this Aldi house, if you turn it on, it’s automatically on a timer.

After having this grocery store for a few days, I find the default six-hour timer to be annoying. I often have my Christmas village lit up all day, or for a large part of the day. That means that if I want the mini Aldi market to be lit up with the rest of my village all day, I have to turn it off and back on at some point. I wish it had the option to be on or off with no timer, or they needed to add a timer function in addition to on and off.

Fine print on the back of the package. (Click to enlarge.)

The bottom of this building states it is a “First Edition,” so perhaps Aldi has plans to continue this line of holiday village houses during the coming years, but I don’t know for certain.

I appreciate how this lights up with batteries rather than cords because my Christmas village is already a tangle of cords. The fact that this is battery-operated gives it a cleaner look. My kids pointed out this Aldi market doesn’t have as many details as some of our other Christmas village buildings. For instance, there is nothing to see inside the windows or doors, whereas some of my village houses have entire scenes inside the windows.

The construction isn’t as high quality as some other Christmas village buildings, and this is evident in the way the interior light shines through some of the building’s seams and corners, and even through part of the building wall itself. The windows and doors also have odd circles in all four corners. The building seems to be a mix of plastic and some type of ceramic.

I bought the accompanying Christmas tree shop a few days after buying the Aldi market, and I’ve had some problems with one — but not all — of the lights on the tree shop flickering. I changed the included batteries to see if it would help, and it fixed the problem temporarily, and then the flickering returned for a short time, leading me to believe it’s probably a bad circuit or connection. Then, mysteriously, the tree shop stopped flickering and started working correctly. It hasn’t flickered for a while now, so hopefully it’s okay, but I’m keeping an eye on it.

Overall, though, these village pieces are cute and I really like the Aldi market. It is guaranteed to spark some fun conversation among holiday guests at my house. I’m glad I was able to get one, but I don’t think these will stick around on Aldi shelves for long.

The Verdict:

The Merry Moments LED Holiday Village House Food Market is a miniature Aldi store sized to fit in most Christmas villages. It lights up using batteries (included) and has a timer setting that turns it on for six hours and off for 18 hours on a repeating cycle. We also bought a Christmas tree shop that is part of this same village collection at Aldi. We’ve had some problems with one of the lights in the tree shop flickering even after changing batteries. Otherwise, these buildings are cute and inexpensive. This little Aldi market is a great addition to any Aldi super fan’s Christmas décor collection. But hurry because this won’t last long at real Aldi stores.