Say, “Ho! Ho Ho!” 1,400 times and you may begin to get a sense of what it feels like to be in Pat Hethrington and her husband Rob Paterson-Burton’s Sturgeon Valley home at this time of year.
Santa figures are out in the snow and inside they are in the bathrooms and bedrooms. They are on the stairs and, of course, they are snuggled up beside the fireplace and in the kitchen too. Sit down in a chair, and a life-sized Santa Claus doll may be right beside you. The effect of all these caring, wrinkled-looking iconic faces is strangely comforting.
Last week Hethrington was in the process of arranging the Santas.
“I mix it up every year. I take down our other artwork and my other collections and I put out the Santas. Some of the bigger ones go in the same place every year but I move them around and arrange them differently each December,” she said
A retired bookkeeper, Hethrington has a penchant for counting and believes she now has 1429 Santas. Her goal is to acquire at least 1,500 of them, but she says there are rules and not just any old Santa will do. A few years ago, as the collection began to grow, Hethrington and Paterson-Burton found themselves forced to define what they would label as “Santa.”
“Rob and I had a lot of fun and even argued because we had to work out ourselves what a Santa was,” she said.
Some are shaped like animals or pirates but all are either dressed in red suits or they have a traditional Santa face. Each is slightly different in some way, from all the others in the collection, Hethrington explained.
She purchased her first St. Nicholas doll on a skiing trip in 1992.
“I saw it in the Lake Louise gift shop and I kept going back and back until I bought it. The hobby grew exponentially after that,” she said.
Many were acquired as souvenirs on holidays and Hethrington always looks for Santas that in some way reflect the local traditions or heritage.
“When we went to Europe, I got the traditional Father Christmas. Metal ones came from Germany. Some of the ones with fur came from Russia. The glass one came from Venice. I’m still surprised we got it home without breaking it,” she said.
Family members and friends give her Santas as presents and Paterson-Burton is always feeding her collecting habit with new Santas.
“I like to take our granddaughters to the antique mall and we search for little plastic Coke-bottle-style Santas that maybe cost 25 cents. I also search for the ones I used to have as a child. You have to keep your eyes open and every now and then you’ll spot one,” said Paterson-Burton.
It’s not unusual for Hethrington to get a text or an email from a shopping friend, who spies a Santa figure in a store. One friend sent her an urgent email last year to say there was a life-sized Santa in a St. Albert store. Hethrington dropped everything to hurry in to purchase the figurine but it was so heavy the two women could scarcely wrestle it into her car.
“We had to balance it on the shopping cart. But I said, ‘you’re so adorable Santa. You’re coming home with me,’” Hethrington said.
The jokey Santas are set up in the basement and at least for this year, the Father-Christmas style figures are in the upstairs family room. The favourites are in the sunroom, where Hethrington and Paterson-Burton and their five cats spend most of their time.
Outside the glass-windowed room, there are pillowy drifts of snow and blue jays and magpies flit about and squabble in nearby feeders. It looks like a Christmas card, especially when you are warm inside with all those red-clothed Santa figures.
Hethrington is always ready with the Santa numbers.
“There are 87 Santas on the Christmas tree and there are 23 Santas on the wreath,” she said.
Still, of all the 1429 Santas in the collection one stands out.
“This is my granddaughter’s handprint,” said Hethrington. “My daughter made it and painted it to look like Santa. Desiree is seven months old,” Hethrington said.
This may be the last year that Hethrington lugs all the Santas upstairs for display. It’s such a big job that in the future she plans to only bring out the favourites. Still she has that magical number of 1,500 in her head and if there are gift Santas under the tree this year or if a friend calls with yet another Santa find, she will not be able to resist.
“It makes me feel so good and I like my Santas. You cannot walk into this house and not feel Christmassy,” she said.
Paterson-Burton agreed.
“Every year, setting them out gets us in the Christmas mood,” he said, but he also admitted it is getting hard to keep track of them all.
“Where’s the one to put on the clock?” Hethrington asked.
“It’s in a box somewhere,” Paterson-Burton said with a laugh.
