Santas, Santas, and More Santas!

Matt's mom (AKA Gigi) collects a Christmas village. She collects a Department 56 village called Snow Village. Now, it's not just some cute little collection that she gets out and sets up on a table each year with a few things that plug in and light up. Really, it's more like a country than a village! I don't even know how many pieces she now has, but I don't even want to think about how long it takes just to take each of them out of its box each year and then pack it up after Christmas. Really, until you see it in person, you just can't imagine how elaborate this village is and how many pieces there are to it. There are so many pieces actually, that she has this incredibly talented man named Ed come to set it up every year. Now, I won't even get into Ed's house in this post, but it's even crazier the number of pieces that he has!! He actually has an Open House each year for people to come see all of his Christmas collections setup. But back to Gigi, she has quite a few pieces herself! Ed sets it up on styrofoam that he uses some special tool to cut to make it look like ice and snow and he even uses a glitter spray for added effect. Then he somehow manages to plug in what seems like a million plugs that are all controlled by a few little remotes. It's very impressive, and we definitely enjoy the village at Gigi's house each year! Since she has enjoyed her collection so much, she has always encouraged me to find a Christmas collection of my own. I honestly was too overwhelmed at the thought of how much a village would cost and the time involved in setting it up each year, so overwhelmed that I have never been able to find a village of my own. Knowing that the idea of a Christmas village was not something I was ready for, she bought us a Snow Babies "starter kit" for our first Christmas that we were married. It was such a sweet thought...she was trying to help me find something I could collect, and the Snowbabies were definitely less expensive and required less setup than a village would. The following year, we moved into our first house (the house we are in now). For Christmas she got us another Snowbaby piece called Home Sweet Home. Again, SO sweet. The idea of getting a new piece each year was such a cute idea, but Matt and I started to get a little freaked out at the idea of too many Snowbabies in the house. There's something about these sweet little doll faces that are all off-white from head to toe with blue eyes that creeped us out for some reason. We had to tell Gigi that we were done collecting Snowbabies. Gigi, we love you, and it was SUCH a a sweet idea!! Luckily, we can still make jokes about it to this day!

Anyways, I went a couple of years still with no collection of my own. I did decide sometime in 2007 that I really liked the North Pole village (another Department 56 collection), but I was still not quite ready to claim that as my collection. My grandmother decided she would start collecting them in case I would eventually want them. My sister also found another Dept 56 village to collect called Christmas in the City. Now, just like Gigi, my family tends to obsess over their collections. Rather than collecting one piece each year, we like to start off with a good-sized assortment from day 1! Although, Christy and Nama still don't have quite as many pieces as Gigi, they have quite a few considering they have only been "collecting" for maybe 2 years now. My dad has stepped up to the challenge of setting them up in a creative way like Ed, so he even borrowed the fancy tool to cut the styrofoam for my grandmother's village. Even though my dad hasn't picked a village of his own, he is pretty obsessed with them too! Thanks Gigi, you've got my entire family hooked now :) !! It's been a lot of fun for them. They are looking on Craig's List and EBay year-round for good deals. It truly is an obsession!

So, here I am 5 years after my first Snowbaby, still without a collection of my own yet. Well, this year when I was setting up our Christmas stuff I came across a Santa that Gigi had gotten me when Campbell was born. Campbell was born November 29th, so I was in the hospital just in time for Christmas decorations to go up. Gigi brought us the sweetest gift at the hospital, this Santa holding a baby in a white gown. It was precious! It is a Clothtique Possible Dreams Santa called Best Gift of All. Here is a picture of the figure:

Anyways, I started looking online this year to see which other Santas they have....oh my!!! There's this whole world of collectibles out there that I just didn't know about! I became obsessed with looking online for all the different figures you can get. I told Gigi and the rest of my family this year that I decided I wanted to collect the Department 56 Clothtique Possible Dreams Santas!! I had finally made up my mind! So, in true McDaniels-Cheatham-Fett fashion (ha ha!), I decided to start my collection with full force!! I decided in early December (maybe late November) to collect these Santas. I started with one from Gigi, and by the time we put our Christmas stuff away this year, I had 12!!! Gigi gave me two more for Christmas gifts.....The Dog Walker and Makin' the List. They are adorable!! The Dog Walker is Santa in a sweater and pants with red and green tennis shoes on walking three dogs - SO cute! I can actually write names on the list that Santa is holding in the other figure!

Then, the day after Christmas we heard that Dillards was putting them on sale 50% off along with their other Christmas decor! My sister, my mom and my grandmother all got in line and Dillards with the rest of the "crazies" that morning to barge down the door as soon as they opened. Matt, Campbell and I got there just in time to walk in the door too. It was a mad house!! People swarmed the tables of Santas....I'm surprised a fight didn't break out! There were husband and wife teams that would split up. The wife would go crazy finding the ones she wanted and then drop them off with the husband who was standing away from the crowds protecting their pile of Santas. People even had bags and carts to help them carry the boxes the cashier counter. It was hilarious!! I looked at Matt and said, "what have I gotten us into???" Funny enough, we even ran into Gigi at the mall!! We were all there going crazy over the Santas - so fun!! I walked away with 5 that I purchased myself with some Christmas money from Gigi :)....thanks Gigi!!! I got a Santa holding an American Flag (not pictured), a Santa on a motorcycle called Christmas Joy Ride, a Santa reading the Night Before Christmas to a little girl and boy, a cowboy Santa throwing horseshoes called Ringer Santa, and a Santa in a tuxedo with a martini and a plate of cookies called Shaken, Not Stirred. SO cute!!

Then, we exchanged Christmas gifts with my family the night of the 26th. I received 4 more Santas as gifts!! I received Happy Wife, Happy Life from my grandparents...a very cute one of Mrs. Clause giving Santa a kiss on the cheek while holding a gift behind her back. I received the pilot Santa and one of the beach Santas (not pictured) from my dad (and mom....really my mom got them but then signed the gift tags from my dad since he's a pilot and he loves the beach Santa). The beach Santa is wearing flip flops, shorts and a Hawaiian print shirt holding a potted Christmas tree plant that has seashell ornaments on it - very cute! I even got a cute airplane in Canton as an added decoration to go next to the pilot Santa next year! My sister also gave me a Santa Sweets figure where Santa is wearing an apron and stirring some batter in a bowl (not pictured) - so cute!

All in all, my collection is off to a great start!! I'm really looking forward to setting them up next year....I'll definitely post some pictures ;) !! It will be interesting to see how many more I come up with in 2009!!