Merry Monday - The Final Installment of Gene's Santas!

Last week's post featured highlights of the dining room Christmas decorations at the home of my friends Gene and Laura. This week we're taking a look at a few more of Gene's fabulous creations in some other rooms of their home. This beautiful tree in their family room is so huge that Bob and Arthur, their Bichons barely made it into this photo!

Gene doesn't limit himself to just sculpting Santa figures. In this mixed media artwork he has applied gold leaf to the stars, border and even the edge of the mat. There's probably a very interesting story behind this creation but unfortunately I forgot to ask him about it. Duh! 

This Santa Claus isn't your typical "fat and jolly old elf" but he does look concerned.

I get the impression that he really cares about delivering toys to children all over the world.

These three tiny Santas are guarding the paint brushes.

Another Santa adorns the top of a curio cabinet that holds even more Santas! He's carrying quite a load of toys in his sack. Vintage cookie cutters along with a sack of pomegranates hang from his belt.

A basket of canvas Santa ornaments.

Moving on to the living room one of Gene's watercolor of two Cardinals decorates the hallway.

No Victorian house is complete without a posh living room or more appropriately, a parlor.  In turn, that calls for some equally fancy Santas. One detail I never noticed before on this guy is the snowman pail he's carrying. At first I thought it was a ghost jack o'lantern treat bucket, but nope. It's definitely a snowman, but he could actually be Santa Claus all ready to go out and Trick-or-Treat on Halloween.  

The gorgeous living room tree is decorated with new and vintage glass ornaments.

In 1992 Gene entered a holiday decoration contest sponsored by the Smithsonian and Family Circle Magazines. As one of the winning entries, his Santa was displayed during Christmas at the White House that year. Amazingly, after the holidays were over they returned it to him! 

Another little cluster of sparkling Santas.

Finally, here's a Santa riding a pig. It's impossible to pick a favorite from all of these but this guy is near the top of my list. Look at him, happily riding into town on a big, old blue-eyed pig! A huge sack of toys to pass out to all the children. He may be a little lost but he will figure it out, eventually.

If my last three blog posts were movies, they would never pass the Bechdel Test. However, there is one female character among the sea of Santas, a foul-mouthed nun puppet. She looks innocent enough but she's probably hiding a ruler up her sleeve! I mentioned last week that Gene's wife, Laura has been performing in musical theatre for many years. One roll that she has enjoyed playing quite a few times is Sister Mary Hubert in Nunsense. So it's no surprise that Gene got the task of making Sister Mary Annette for the play. She hangs around in the living room, mostly acting superior.

I'm joining Marfi at Incipient Wings for Merry Monday.

This week I am finally getting the name right!

Thanks to Gene and Laura for letting me share their lovely Christmas decorations.

Are you managing to stay calm and avoiding the last minute Christmas frenzy?

 I hope everyone had a great weekend!