#19- Santa Claus

I work with a lot of collectors. One teacher collects everything to do with snowmen... another collects everything Angels.... another collects anything I Love Lucy.... I'm sure you get the picture. I'm resistant to collect too much of one type of thing. Okay, so I collect postcards, stamps, old photos.... but it's never one thing. Alright, I should admit- I do collect one set of Hallmark ornaments each year (Gosh, that feels so silly to admit, but I promise to share more about that later, and that they aren't TOO cheesy), but other than that, it's more of the mood of the thing. That probably sounds weird, but I'd rather feel like any holiday decorations I put up don't stand out too much (sore thumb). I'd rather they sort of blend in with our cozy little cottage (townhouse). Maybe they're something that has a history to me, or I imagine it being part of someone else's history, or it's just different.... who knows.

So this is the only snowman (run-of-the-mill) I have in the house... he was a gift to me the first year at this school. That was a special year, the year I met ole Jer.

I do have 4 Santa things I've kept around... but I don't want to add too much to it. Just some fun stuff for the kitchen.
An old candle


A stuffed Santa... one of the first Christmas decorations I ever purchased. I was living in my first apartment with 2 Jewish girls. We did have a tree, but we used silver and blue bulbs. What a fun Christmas that was.


This I've had since I was little. A gift from my grandmother Shirley. I make sure he goes up every year.


It says "HO HO HO", but I cut the photo short, I'm sure you can use your imagination.


And this guy counts as a Santa, too, I guess. He guards our Christmas card box.

I had a really hard time believing that Santa wasn't real. I could have sworn I saw him and his reindeer in the sky one year... my mom pointed to the sky and told me that's what we were looking at. I also remember seriously believing I'd burned myself on my plastic oven toy (very non-electric, you turned the knob and it made the colors change). Anyway, I was never told outright whether he was real or not.

If you could be a fly on a wall in our school right now, you'd hear a lot of Santa: Real or Not discussion. Serious debating takes place. I want them to believe, you know?