The Santa Collection

In my last post, you saw all of those empty shelves.  Most of the year they hold my pottery collection and Tom's pop-up book collection. 

However, for the month of December those shelves are filled with Santa's. 

I have been collecting Santas for about 30 years, and so I have a few. Many I purchased, some others were given to me as gifts. Some are hand crafted, many are commercially made, and some are works of art. They come from bazaars, Christmas shops, craft fairs, and world travels. 

The Santa with deer, top, second from the left, is ceramic and made by my late Aunt Lois. On the third shelf down, one of the newest is a baker Santa, with Nordic Santas and a garden Santa. On the bottom shelf, center, is Saint Nicholas. 

 On the top shelf above is a fat, vintage papier mache Santa that we found in a little antique shop in Oregon.  He has a twin on another shelf. On the botton shelf, center left, is Terry, a hand carved Whidbey Island Santa. The three center right are gourds. 

 The mantel displays the hand carved collection made by a teacher friend. 

On the top shelf above are two very special hand carved Santas from our travels.  The toy maker is from little wood carver's shop in Rothenburg, Germany and the one in his long johns is from a craft market we just happened upon in a small farming town in upstate New York. 

The one on the left on the top shelf above is also from Rothenburg, from the famous Christmas shop Kathe Wohlfahrt.  In the center is the Nordic Yuletomten,  the Christmas elf who brings gifts to the good and sticks to the naughty. 

There are a few more Santas scattered around the house too. 

 This one is a painted cypress knee from New Orleans. Cypress trees grow in the bayous and the roots develop these "knees" that stick up out of the water so the roots of the tree can breathe. 

These three Santas are tall and richly dressed, with great faces and luxurious beards. 

And there you have it, my Santa collection.  I'll be visiting Christmas shops with friends next week, and I have already vowed to myself and Tom that for anything else to come home with us it would have to be mighty special! We may have reached our limit!