Sign of Holiday Cheer at Home for Elderly : Santa Leaves a Christmas Calling Card

Every Christmas season for the last 7 years, a mysterious Santa has greeted residents of the Eastern Star Home in Brentwood by placing a sign reading “Merry Christmas Ladies” on the back fence.

It happened again last weekend.

A security guard at the retirement home said that on Saturday night someone cut a lock on a gate leading to a back-yard field and put up the 100-foot-long sign with 5-by-5-foot white plastic foam letters draped with red tape.

Replaced Broken Lock

In front of the sign is a plywood Santa riding a sleigh drawn by eight brown reindeer with yellow antlers. On the ground around the sleigh is snow made from Christmas tree flocking.

The intruder replaced the broken lock with a new one and left the new key on the fence, the guard said.

Patti Cook, the home’s assistant administrator, said that although this has been going on for 7 years, no one at the home knows who is responsible.

“It must be someone associated with Eastern Star,” she said. “Everybody has a guess who it might be, but it’s kind of fun not to know for sure.”

The sign is visible from most of the 66 residents’ rooms and from a second-story sitting room of the home on Sunset Boulevard near Barrington Avenue.

“It’s beautiful,” said Ida Mae Severance, 88, who has lived in the home for 3 years. “We all enjoy it.”

The same mysterious intruder is also believed to be responsible for putting up a Maypole in the home’s front yard every May 1. And this year, little decorated pumpkins were placed on the front porch at Halloween.

A man saying he was part of the group responsible for putting up the sign called The Times and said no one of his group has any connection to the home.

“We just do it to brighten up their day,” he said, declining to disclose his identity. “It gives them a little spark in their lives.”

A woman who identified herself as one of Santa’s helpers said she did it for personal reasons.

“I would want someone to do it for me,” she said. “A lot of these ladies have no families, and the sign brightens their day. It’s a pleasant surprise for them to wake up one morning and see the sign.”

First Male Resident

The mysterious intruder, however, is obviously not the real Santa Claus, because he forgot to check his list twice. If he had, he would have known that the once all-female home got its first male resident 3 months ago. With the sign reading “Merry Christmas Ladies,” he is left out.

When informed of the slight, the mysterious Santa promised to make a correction.

“I’m definitely going to do it,” he said.

He did not, however, say when.

“That’ll be a surprise,” he said.