Tuesday, December 1, 2015

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!

19 comments:

  1. Nope, you will never reach a limit. This is a fabulous collection. You owe it to Jill, Irene, & Isaac to keep this collection going. It's too bad you get to view it for such a short time each year. Amazing.

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  2. how fun, love your comments to explain more about the santa clauses-what a great collection!

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  3. Just amazing. My mouth fell open and I applauded you.

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  4. Oh, my goodness, that's alotta Santas! How delightful!

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  5. Wonderful Santa collection, Linda. I love to hear about them and enjoy knowing where they came from. I agree that you will probably never actually reach your limit but will just find new places to display them. :-)

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  6. That is an amazing collection, some real beauties.

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  7. Such a great collection complete with memories. Merry Christmas.

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  8. My collection of Santas is very small in comparison!

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  9. What a marvelous collection of Santas, a few looked like Jim Shore creations. I bet you could fit in a few more Santas someplace:)

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  10. Great Santa collection.

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  11. When you said Santa collection , I thought what next. When I looked at them I was impressed . What beautiful ornaments! The last Santas are dressed in authentic northern parkas.

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  12. I love seeing and hearing about your collection of Santas. I'm wondering if you will find another "mighty special" Santa when you're those Christmas shops next week.

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  13. I forgot to say, "Stunning new header photo."

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  14. That is a wonderful collection. I am sure it provides you with a pleasant walk down memory lane as You put it on display each year. I have every faith in you--you will find something very special again!

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  15. I thought I had a Santa collection, but now that I've seen yours, I realize mine isn't so much a collection as it is an attempt at starting a collection. Yours are beautiful.

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  16. You have an amazing collection of Santas!! Love how you have them displayed.

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  17. This is so much fun! You must have the most amazing Santa collection around.

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