(One of My Own Handpainted Santas from 1995)

I promised you guys a longer post to share some pictures of my somewhat vast Santa collection. Do keep in mind that I’ve been collecting them for over 60 years, hence the wide variety of styles and ages. Hope you’ll enjoy seeing some of these. (I sure enjoy seeing them when I bring them down from the attic every year.) Here goes!

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I mentioned recently that I have Santas ranging in height from less than 1 inch to 6 feet. We’ll start with the little guys.

This is the bottom tier of a wooden table top tree I use to display some of my smallest Santas. Note the three little Santas, bottom shelf, center. The one on the left by the green hut is just 1/2″ tall, and is my smallest one. The one on the right is a Coca-Cola Santa with a TINY bottle of Coke in his hand. He’s a 1″ tall charm. And the slightly larger one in the middle, is my oldest Santa at very close to 100 years old. The two Santa faces on each side of the picture are vintage salt & pepper shakers from the 50s.

This is the other side of the wooden tree, looking back through the passthrough window. The bookshelf beneath it is where I display what I call my Holly Jolly Santas, or those with a modern look to them. This is an older picture, but this year’s display has 37 Santas, including some really neat ones from the 50s.

One of the items on the shelf is this little Santa dish, which was my grandmother’s & dates from about 1952, so roughly 70 years old.

I display most of my Old World Santa collection on the mantle, and it has 42 Santas on it this year, down from an all-time high of 50. (I’ve started letting the grandkids pick one to take home with them each year, so a few have gone to their houses now.)

Here’s a closeup of one of my faves from the mantel collection,
a hand-carved and painted cypress knee made by a fellow crafter.
The two blue “pencil” Santas on the right are ones I painted long ago.

Here’s one I painted years ago, with a bit
of a pun for a message.

And here’s another unique Santa I really enjoy. Found him at a craft show years ago. He’s hand carved with movable arms and legs, and his beard  & hair is made of natural Spanish moss, which I thought would all crumble away over time,
but I’ve had him for at least 15 years, and it’s still looking good.
(Maybe because I don’t put him in the hot attic
with most of the other decorations.)

I painted this plaque back in the 80s,  when I did arts & crafts for a living.
I decided I didn’t want to sell him, though, so these days
he hangs in our entryway to greet visitors.

And speaking of our entryway, it always gets a mixture of Santas, including some advertising posters I’ve had for 50+ years. (Since my son was a baby.)

One more from the entryway. This poster has gone on the inside of our
front door since my son was a baby, too. It’s been taped back together
more times than I can count, but I refuse to get rid of it!

Every room has at least a few Santas, even the kitchen.

I’ll even paint empty jars and put them to use
in the kitchen, too!

And here’s  a close up of our library tree. There are somewhere between
85 and 100 Santas on this one, along with lots of other ornaments, including some more I painted, and quite a few  very old vintage ones.

Even my computer desk has some Santas to
keep me company while I work.

Bob the Skull from the Dresden Files resides in my library
all year long, and snarky or not, he demands to get in
on the action at Christmas, too!

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The living room is a whole ‘nuther world, though, all done in blue, white,
and silver. I like it to look very frosty and wintry in there, just to
remind me of what Christmas is like in much of the country.

Here’s a close up of some of the ornaments.

The living room tabletop Santa is all in white & blue, too.
While there are no Santas in the dining room, I still stick
to the blue & silver color scheme, just because I like it so much,
and happily, our china matches it!

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Since I started this long post off with my smallest Santas, I’m going to
end it with a picture of my tallest one. This was a display at our
local Publix store about 20 years ago, and  I told my daughter how much
I loved it. Unbeknownst to me, she went back to the store and
sweet-talked the manager into giving it to her as a gift for
her mom.  He’s been part of our Christmas ever since.
(The Santa. Not the manager! 😁)

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And there you have a glimpse of some of the Santas and other things I put up every year to make Christmas as festive at our house as I possibly can. I hope you’ve enjoyed taking a peek and are now definitely
in the mood for Christmas fun!

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Blessings to each of you for the Merriest Christmas possible,
and the Happiest New Year ever!