Yeah, I'm aware it's not Christmas (though it will be before you know it), but I've been meaning to do this post for a while. Not that it contains any earth-shaking content (when do they ever?), but I feel like wallowing in nostalgia for a bit.
The Santa in the above photo is from a set of four I bought in WOOLWORTH'S back around the mid-'80s. Every year since then they've been trotted out to add to the festive cheer in the living-room, adorning the wall-clock above the fireplace for many a Christmas now - 'though I originally hung them from the old tree (which pre-dates my arrival on the planet).
It's a classic Santa Claus design, very similar to the one associated with COCA COLA. And though I didn't acquire the figures until the mid-'80s, I can easily imagine them as part of the Christmases of my boyhood back in the '60s, accentuating the yuletide mood of houses that they never once saw the insides of. Strange that, eh?
Anyway, I assumed when I bought them that they were a relatively new product at the time ('cos I'd never seen them before), but perhaps they're an old item that appeared in shops every Christmas for decades. Does anyone else have them, and if so, can you recall roughly what year you first got them? Let me know in the comments section, will you?
(And remember - it's only eight months to Christmas.)
Did all 4 of the Santas look the same? The reason I ask is that I recall us getting a bag of variant Santas I’m sure there were four of them in the bag. Of that set we had only one still exists in our decorations and because Mrs Jones finds him “creepy” he has to be hidden from plain sight…
ReplyDeleteYup, AJ, four the same. Came in a blister pack. I've got four other Santas, cartoon ones, which are in different positions, but the same Santa. None of them are 'creepy'.
ReplyDelete('Though when you think about it - an old guy who sneaks into your kids' bedrooms at night to give them toys and sweets...oo-er, that IS a bit creepy!)
Interesting, but not the same. The only other one I really remember was a hollow plastic cartoon one with his arms behind his back. I must dig the one I still have out to show you, he has a large head (that looks rather like a Pelham Puppet) with a thin spindly body sitting on a swing but saying that with it being only 8 months until Christmas it will soon be time to dig out the decorations again anyway ;)
ReplyDeleteTwo Santas I'd love to own again are a friction-drive Santa in a rocket-sled (perhaps by Marx), and a cake topper Santa on skis, about an inch and a half high. Had them as a kid, miss them still.
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