Let's talk about Santa Claus

First time visitors to our house during the Christmas season are usually interested in our decorations but it sometimes takes a while before they realize the extent of the Santa Claus figures theme. We’ve pared back considerably in the last 10 years, from about 250, with Mark and Paul being the recipient of many of the SC figures whether they wanted them or not. In fact, to circumvent Paul’s resistance, Jim gave the Santas to Rachel and Jillian rather than the parents. It’s fun for us to visit the two houses and see some old favourites on display. Even so, the only ornaments on our tree are Clauses and most of our other seasonal decorations are too.

So how did this Santa Claus thing come about? It’s a short/long story and for interest’s sake I am going to say it started in 1988. It might have been 1987, maybe even ’86, but ’88 makes it an even 30 years ago and justifies this post. Nan FitzGerald may remember the year since she started it all; the PEI Home Economics teachers were having a Christmas house tour fund-raiser event in whatever year it was and Nancy was organizing it or maybe president of the association, or both. In idle staff room chat about the event Nancy said they needed a “modest” house for the tour, to counterbalance Government House.

 

Our 1700sf house certainly fit the modest requirement but it was in an interesting waterfront location with an unusual-for-the-day wide open layout. Without any thought, or consulting Jim, I offered it and Nan said yes. We didn’t have a lot of notice or a clue what we were doing but dived in anyway.

We ordered up a 12 foot tree, not that easy to come by, and then I said, “we should have a theme”. We had picked up a couple of Santa Claus figures in our year in South Carolina, so decided that rustic/cottage/SC would be our thing. We were relatively broke but also relatively creative so we made a set of 4 Father Christmas’s out of scrap plywood and lucked into a package of biggish flat wooden ornaments at the old Eaton’s store on Kent Street. Two days before the event I decided we had to have something at the front door, so a purpose-bought piece of plywood turned into a 6’ Father Christmas in a big hurry, such a hurry that a week later we had to sand him down and re-varnish because he had begun to peel.

The house was a front split with a 4 foot drop to the living room from the entry, hence the 12 foot tree located at the bottom of the stairs with 

the upper half decorated from the upper hall. I don’t know if the house tour was a success but several hundred people trekked though our place, such that while we were having our wind-down beverage later, the tree crashed. Who knew that all that jarring as people came down the stairs would destabilize the balance of the not-tied-to-anything tree? We were SOOOO lucky it didn’t happen as ticket holders wandered about!

Naturally we carried on with the Santa theme over the years; we made more than a few for gifts and were given others in return. Santas also became something we looked for as we travelled. Storage of Christmas decorations was an issue as we shopped for houses and decorating became a party event with teams of friend and family assigned to different vignettes in the house and, of course, a competition where a team spokesperson had to sell their effort. In 1990, the first Christmas in our 2^nd house in Victoria, we brought a 9.5 foot tree home from Florida 2 days before the decorating party. The Customs Officer in Vancouver said “you’ve got a what, from where”?

Over the years we've hosted 2 more Christmas house tour fund-raisers and a lot more parties. There are so many stories to tell....!

a tree topper from Shoppers
 in Charlottetown, about 1987

salt-glazed pottery from Maine

Thailand!

front page pic of Jim advertising one of the house tours in Victoria

gift from Linda Bodine

ditzy SC from sister Bets

arts cards from Whitehorse

toy maker from Anne Snowden

a postman to honour Jim's
father and brother
and my grandfather

hand crafted trapper

Ho Ho Ho 2018

St Paul's

the unknown dome

January 4^th, 11 degrees outside and sunny in what, so far, has been a mild winter. At almost latitude 49 the days are short and, with our winter cloud/rain, some days are short and dark like yesterday when it seemed like night by 4:00pm. Instead of long evenings on the balcony or patio, we relish Christmas lights and events and celebrate December 21 when the earth seems to stand still and then move back toward the sun. Our 2018 Christmas “season” started in November with a 3 day jaunt to Vancouver. We had gorgeous weather and the city was well into decorations. I loved the Scandi theme decor at Nordstrom's and St. Paul's Hospital had a huge fund-raising display of stars (that little silhouette against the red is Jim). We weren't sure what the dome was for but it had a red carpet down the middle as though something was going to happen inside.

Then we did a quick flip (2^nd one in 6 weeks) back to the Maritimes for Paul’s 50^th birthday and took in the Father Christmas Festival in Mahone Bay as well as the annual Christmas party to light the Stars of Russell at Chez Griffith. 

birthday boy

 And on the home front there is always so much to do and see! We managed to get to the Santa Claus parade, Butchart Gardens, the tuba Christmas concert, the tree festival, the gingerbread competition, some theatre, went to a few parties, hosted 2 parties for groups we are associated with, and had 20 for Christmas dinner.

Where's Waldo?

Butchart Gardens

Tuba concert with 113 musicians

At almost the last minute I did a couple of shifts for the Salvation Army Red Kettle campaign, a very minor contribution to a worthy cause. Maybe it is different in other places but they were having trouble getting volunteers this year and donations were down. I did the early afternoon shift on December 21, prime time for the campaign, and there was no one on duty before or after me. That means the kettle is idle and no money. Christmas is a hot time for charities, especially food banks, Christmas hampers, refugees, homeless shelters and children’s programs; every one of them supporting vulnerable people. It can result in donor fatigue and with high expectations for a “Merry Christmas” everyone is stretched for cash. Yes, being on The Kettle can be boring and after a couple of hours of bell-ringing I was sore, but the SA is always on the front line in the worst places, no questions asked so it felt good to be there.

Me dressed for the +10 degrees I had to endure on the Kettle!