My light-up Santa is the new light of my life. You can’t see it in my excellent photo, but St. Nick is gently faded around the edges, as befits a gently-used treasure.
I found the chubby Chief Elf at my local consignment shop, Woman’s Exchange in Sarasota.
Santa’s wielding an upside-down candy cane, all the better to beat back the years. I’d say he’s, oh, 55 or 60, a nice age for Santa Claus, don’t you think? And while he is the requisite jolly, I do believe he’s a tad more dignified than that guy in the print overalls on the swing over his left shoulder or the cylindrical one with the lantern hanging around in the background.
Just the thing to light up the holidays. I love him to death. And he was only $5. I love to imagine the variety of Christmases he has seen and the various mantels, windowsills, and centerpieces he’s inhabited over the years. To this Santa, every day is Christmas.
Whoever consigned him: know that your Santa has been adopted into a loving home! (Yes, the tree skirt is also from a consignment shop, the one I founded, One More Time. I love it to death, too. My affections are easily given to Christmas stuff.)
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
[…] just for fun, my Light-up Santa, and tales of my angel in-laws and what they had to put up with and my current (polka-dot) Santa […]
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I have one almost just like him, and your age estimate on your Santa is correct. He and I are about the same age. I remember having another like him when I was a kid.
My dh buys me a Santa for my collection every year. My favorite is a great big jolly old elf made of plaster, with a bright red face, probably from too much Christmas cheer, who Kenny rescued from the basement of a dark old junk store.
The Santa Kenny gave me this year is marked 1945. I’ve been imagining, like you, Kate, the Christmases he’s seen. (Ever read Hitty: Her First Hundred Years?)
I can’t think who would ever give up these wonderful old guys, but I’m very glad they do.
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