Another Santa for collection

I found this Santa at the same place I found the 3 Santas in a previous post. The Tiki Santa and the Cookie Jar Santa sold out already, so I have to go with Lobster Santa here or maybe Santa by the pool. My home is pretty nautical, since we sail whenever the weather on Lake Michigan allows, so I'm guessing this Lobster Santa might be the final choice. I'll edit this post to get a link to the store as soon as I find it. Here it is - Click here.

I also need to get the camera out and post a pix of the Santa Coca-Cola tin I picked up the other day in a consignment shop. Perfect condition, small tin, very distinctly Coca-Cola, but in the general shape of Santa, who is pictured on the front. Overall, about 8" tall. I brought it home for a $1. I love Christmas.

North Pole Mail - Letters to and from Santa

If you have mail going to the North Pole, you might still be looking for Santa's address. And there's a chance you're trying to find the route Santa uses to send letters FROM the North Pole also.

Here's the scoop:

Most Post Offices in the USA can route letters addressed as simply as:

Santa Claus
North Pole

There is something called Operation Santa Claus, which is headquartered in NY, and Post Offices that don't participate on a local basis will forward their letters to:

Santa Claus
General Post Office
New York NY 10000

If you're in a charitable mood, you can check out Operation Santa Claus and become a true Santa's helper.

Santa shopping spree!

My morning started very well - I found several really cute Santas - two that reflect the growing population of baby boomers spending their winters in warmer climates. Check these out:




If you click on them, you'll go straight to the page I found them on at a Nautical store. There was also a cute little pink flamingo Christmas tree if you need a whimsical gift for Grandma, hehe.

The third Santa I fell in love with this morning was this Cookie Jar Santa. I think he will spend December on my Christmas table. We always have plates and tins and packages of tempting cookies sitting there. I think this Santa could help us hide a few to eat on New Year's Eve.

If you're a Santa collecter, I hope you're enjoying the season as much as I am. We're only a short time away from hauling out the storage boxes and displaying all our men in little red coats. Between now and then is the perfect time to find additions while you have the time.

I think these nesting Santas have the cutest expressions. It must be the tilt of the head and the big eyes. I have found more really precious art dolls at this site. As soon as I decide which ones are my favorites, I'm going to make a list for the kids so they can do their Christmas shopping for my gift.

They are just one example of the dozens of Santas at RussianLegacy.com, which specializes in Folk Art like this, especially nesting dolls. This set of 5 Santas is about $22. They're made of wood and hand-painted in Russia. They ship about a week after you order. I'll post pictures of others as I find them. Not all the great Santas are nesting dolls. Most are carved wood and many are the tall, slim Santas in the International style that's been so popular this last decade. My post about the $1000 Santa has a picture that is a good example of the quality workmanship this import company represents.

The link above and the photo link both go to the online mall where I found these. The mall has the entire product catalog of Russian Legacy, not just Santas.

Gotta get my butt in gear

It's getting to be that time. I have to start clearing space in the livingroom, family room, dining room and office for the annual Santa migration. Dozens of Santas are sleeping in storage tubs in my garage, nestled in tissue paper and plastic grocery bags, waiting for that magic moment when suddenly, IT'S CHRISTMAS!

I also have to find all the digital photos I took last year when I was putting them away for the season. I knew that I wanted to showcase the collection, so I took the time to photograph most of them. I must have downloaded them to my laptop, because they aren't here in this PC. There are two favorites that I'm anxious to show because I found them in two different flea markets in two different parts of the world and have never seen similar ones.

The first is about 6-7" high and is Santa sitting in his chair, relaxing with a cup of coffee (or tea) in his hand. If you lift him up, there's a place to put incense so that the smoke circles out of the coffee cup. It's especially wonderful with a coffee related scent like vanilla or hazelnut. If I don't find the pix, I'll take another one.

The second is similar in that they both probably came from the same manufacturer and time period although I'm ignorant of both. This one has Santa baking cookies or bisquits in an old fashioned pot-bellied stove. The stove door is open, there are bellows and Santa has a black smudge on his face if I'm remembering correctly. For this one, the incense goes under the stove. When it's lit, the smoke is coming out the stove and it creates a wonderful whimsical scene.

All this talk of Santa is motivating me to get started. I can at least grab the box of the Santas I gathered in February on our winter vacation. I know I don't have photos of them. My favorite there is Grateful Red. Soon, I promise.

Proof that Santa was here

This post strays a little from the art of collecting just the right Santa figures for your home. When originally published in 2005, there was a web site that sold a Santa-was-here kit and this post had a link to it. It has since disappeared and so I came in today (Nov 2006) to bring it up-to-date.

When my kids were small, I could fill out forms at the local upscale department store, pay a small fee for postage, etc. and get a personalized letter sent to each one of my tots and it really did tickle them. The first time was a huge wonder; after that they watched for their mail from the North Pole.

The gimmick was that you could get indisputable proof that Santa Claus was at your house. The box contained detailed instructions which you might need to set the scene. There's a torn scrap of red velvet and a plastic "Sleigh" license that Santa apparently dropped while forcibly entering your home.

The reindeer spend their down-to-earth time snacking, and they're not very neat or greedy about it - they leave some reindeer food on your lawn. There was a parchment Thank you card that Santa was willing to leave in exchange for a snack and best of all, are you ready for this - you also got a plastic reindeer hoof and instructions for using it to leave hoofprints on your lawn.

So - even though I no longer have an invalid link to a non-existant store here anymore - you could set the scene at your house by using the description above - if you have a houseful of little ones - it might make a great photo op for Grandma.

Thousand dollar Santa

I found this Santa at Russian Legacy which is a store I really love, but the price tag means I'll have to admire him from here.

If you're an art lover (probably should have put that in CAPS considering the price), this Santa could be right for your collection. Every piece I see at Russian Legacy is truly a work of art and since I'm a little bit of an artist myself, I really want to honor that hard work in some way.

There are hundreds of pieces in the $50-$100 range, many even less and those are the ones I'll add to my collection this year. But I had to show you this one. They have some that cost more, but if you want those, you probably have already seen them.

I collect Santas

I guess this is as good a place to start as any. It's late Friday night in mid September. Summer's all but gone, the Fall season is coming on gray and wet. I have to start thinking about Christmas to keep my head in the game.

I love Christmas. I used to actually make NEW stockings for all the people who would be here for Christmas EVERY year. I'm not quite that nuts anymore, but I do have quite a Santa collection that threatens to take over the house all through the year.

I try to keep my three large storage tubs of Santa figurines tucked away when it's off-season, but almost without fail I see a Santa I have to have during the Spring, Summer or Winter Vacation (Jan or Feb) and I bring it home. I have a tiny Hawaiian Santa surfing in his board shorts (it's an ornament) and I have a Grateful Red hippy Santa with his beads and sandals that came home with me from Missouri outlet malls last road trip.

I love Santa in so many media and formats that it threatens to overtake my obsession with lighthouses of the world.

Anyway - I saw some incredible artistically painted Santas in a catalog yesterday. I'm going to try and find the picture and maybe even the store and post it here Sunday or Monday. Hope by then you've found this blog and if you love Santa, too - join me! Let's find them all.