Merry Monday (on Tuesday) - More of Gene's Santas!

Last week's post was all about the many Father Christmas figures HM and I have received as Christmas gifts from our very talented friend, Gene. Over the weekend we got a chance to visit him and his lovely wife, Laura so this week we're taking a look at their decorations in their dining room!

Gene and Laura's Victorian era house always looks wonderful but at Christmas it's magical!  

Gene doesn't hold back when it comes to decorating, every nook and cranny gets a festive touch. His house is definitely one big Christmas extravaganza so to get in all the highlights, I'm just going to have to take it room by room! Above is one of his earliest Santas and he's dressed in a dusty rose velvet suit and goes perfectly in the dining room. I believe he and his bunny stick around all year.

  

Of course, no room is complete without a beautifully decorated tree.

Or a giant Santa! Since Gene makes all of his Santas completely by hand they are all unique. No two are identical - unless they're the ones he makes in a mold - but even then, he hand paints each one and they rarely look alike.  

 Like me, Gene grew up on a dairy farm. I'm guessing from the The Animals' Christmas Eve (one of those Little Golden Books) and the Holstein cow, that this Santa was inspired by the tradition of giving the farm animals a little extra food as a special treat on Christmas Eve.    

There are niches between the dining room and living room in Gene and Laura's house. I didn't want to leave you wondering what that other Santa looked like - the one with the houndstooth coat, his back was turned to the camera. Considering the number of oranges in his sack, he must be planning on filling quite a few stockings and it looks like somebody is getting a Polar bear, too.

Gene's wife, Laura has a beautiful voice and has been performing in local musical theatre productions for many years. Naturally, Gene has designed many of the sets.

 

This was a model he did for the set of Fiddler on the Roof.  

Laura loves that he turned it into a Christmas Mouse Village, complete with carollers.

Over on the other side of the dining room, on the buffet, a Father Christmas and what appears to be a Santa Gnome seem to be a little peeved about the singing mice. 

This is the most recent of Gene's creations. It was a Santa he made last year while dealing with a nasty bout of shingles and I think Laura was performing in a production of Nunsense at the time. So this guy is sporting a bundle of wooden roofing shingles and carrying a set of matryoshka nun dolls. Obviously, Gene has recovered and has even outdone himself in decorating for Christmas this year!

I meant to join Marfi at Incipient Wings for Merry Monday. At least this week I'm only a day behind!

Thanks for stopping by and thanks to Gene and Laura for letting me share their dining room Christmas decorations. See you next week, there's still more rooms left!