Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Wow.  Christmas already.  And 6 posts for the month of December? Pathetic. This post would normally have been strewn throughout the month as individual posts, but given it's Christmas high tide, I'm giving all my presents at once.  These are all the Santas I've found in the past year.

 This stocking label was generic enough that I could use it on my own mantel this year.

This was originally a light up made by Sterling in the 1950's. Apparently, the bulb got a little too close to Santa's chest and melted him. Also, the reindeer lost a leg and an antler along the way. I still couldn't leave him behind for $1.

These napkin rings were made in Japan and sold by Pier 1, which I always considered an "80's" store. Apparently, they've been around since 1960.

The ceramic "flocking" around Santa and Mrs. Claus' collars is known as "spaghetti". Don't tell me you don't learn something every time you visit here.

I know, this isn't Santa, but look at him. A Christmas bowler? No, a Christmas bowler which someone added a Shiny Brite ornament cap to making him look like a hotel bellhop. Call for Mr. Claus!

Did you know Santa has a family?  

 Did you know they all get really angry around the holidays? 

 All except the snowman. What does he know? He's not even human. How did he get in the family?

You have to put this trio of Santas in the right order so his tumble makes sense. The fact that it was left to right bothered my daughter. "We read right to left!"  Maybe it's a Jewish Santa.

This Musical Santa (with lighted candle, mind you), is a little after my era of collecting (1980). It was on the forefront of when Christmas decorations went from cute or kitschy to playing annoying first generation electronic music. "Beep beep beep.  Beep beep beep. Beep beep beep beep beeeeep."

 Another non-prototypical Santa tree skirt. It reminds me of this one.

Here's a riddle: What is this?

I'll bet you said "Santa in a blizzard."  Nope. It's Santa's frozen carcus they found after he wandered off into a blizzard after drinking too much eggnog on Christmas Eve.

This pair of felt Santas served some purpose, I just don't know what. They're not stockings. They have a sleeve on the back that I guess could be used to hold cards, but not big ones and not many. Someone suggested they could be wine bottle sleeves, but the bottles would have to be the size of those 8 oz Coke bottles.

Some vintage wrapping paper.

And finally, a couple examples of vintage packaging.