Here Comes Santa Claus

Here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus Lane--which I think is in our renovated attic.

I guess it's appropriate that Doug, who looks a lot like Santa, collects Santas.  He started about 8 years ago, and his collection has grown to well over 100.

We have tree ornaments, Pez containers, nesting Russian dolls, snow globes, statues, salt-and-pepper shakers, and stocking holders.

This snow globe plays a song when you wind it up, and a little train runs on a track around the base.  Santa is drinking a coke:

 

This weekend, we made our annual trek to Eldreth Pottery in Strasburg, Pa., to get the latest redware Santa:

He joined several other redware Santas in our collection, although one is conspicuously absent this year--it's a very tall one that we're afraid will get knocked over by our rambuctious orange-tabby menace, Pax. Maybe by next year, when he's a little more mature, we can bring that one back out.

While we were in Strasburg, we also went to some antique shops and bought the one on the right--it has four more Santas inside, all in different colors:

We also have an extensive collection of blue Eldreth pottery Santas.  They're on display in our upstairs bathroom this year:

This Eldreth is large and stands on the floor next to some vintage picnic baskets.  His lantern is a separate piece that hooks over his hand:

My aunt, who is a talented decorative painter, made this one for us:

This little vintage toy Santa has a bell in his hand and collapses when you push up on the base. I guess the manufacturer thought we wouldn't know who it was, so they stamped "SANTA CLAUS" on the base.

I wish we had one place to display all of them, but our house is just too small for that. So this group is on a bench upstairs. When Doug started collecting, he picked up just about any bargain Santas he found at thrift stores, yard sales, and junk shops, but I've convinced him to be more discriminating because we just don't have room.  When Doug sees this picture, I'm sure he's going to point to the space in the front and tell me we have room for at least a half dozen more.

And of course, other people buy him Santas. My stepson Corey is responsible for this gem, which sits in the office area of our attic and plays loud music when you push a button:

 My daughter Christine brought back this interesting "pepper" Santa from a trip to Arizona.  Santa didn't weather the travel too well, but we glued him back together:

My son Alex found this one when he was cleaning out his grandparents' house last week.  It's one in a set of six called Santa Through the Years.  This one is called The Contemporary Santa and is intended to represent what Santa looked like beginning about 1920:

We have two Santas at the beach, which I don't have pictures of right now--one is a coastal-looking Santa that our friends Steven and Lauren bought for Doug as a thank you for taking their engagement pictures.  The other is a whimsical Florida-themed Santa from my cousin Lou.

This old candle is one of Doug's favorites.  He remembers seeing it every year when he was growing up, and he almost had a heart attack one year when his mother lit it.

 

I guess everyone should have known back then that Santa was Doug's alter ego.