La Habra Collector Has a Pack of Santas
Claire Spothelfer admits that she is a Santa Claus addict.
“I have absolutely no willpower when it comes to Santa,” said the La Habra Heights woman. “I can’t walk into a store without looking for a Santa. If I see one, I have to take it with me. I’m a Santa nut.”
Well, she’s right.
Since her early days when she was given her first Father Christmas by a favorite aunt, Spothelfer, 56, has accumulated 500 Santas in various forms, including the Santa pendant she wears around her neck the year around.
Her Christmas tree is decorated with nothing but Santas.
In fact, her entire house is decorated with her Santa collection during the holidays.
“It just sort of grew like Topsy,” she said. “People started giving me Santa for gifts and one thing led to another.”
The collection includes mugs (“I can drink from a different one every day of December”), plates, musical Santa dolls, wood, fabric and ceramic Santas and a Santa night shirt and slippers.
In addition she has dancing Santas, Santa sheet music, nutcrackers and incense burners.
Besides her cloisonne Santa pendant made in China, her other favorite is a dime store St. Nick with a music box that she gave to her then-5-month-old daughter celebrating her first Christmas. The daughter is now 27.
Last year she didn’t put her collection away until March. “My daughter told me I had to,” she admits.
And this year for the first time, she put her Santa collection on exhibit. It was shown most of December at the Whittier Historical Museum.
“I never thought anyone but my family and friends would be interested in seeing the collection,” said the mother of two children.
Her infatuation with Santa Claus dates back to her youth.
“I suppose as a child I looked forward to Santa Claus each year,” said the former president of the Downey chapter of Los Angeles Childrens Hospital. “We had five children in our family and it was a big day for us.”
Spothelfer noted: “We had wonderful parents who didn’t have much. They did without for themselves so the children could have a nice Christmas.”
Explaining her drive to collect Santas is sometimes difficult for Spothelfer, who calls herself a professional volunteer for everything from the PTA to the major and minor charitable groups.
“Santa just warms my heart, and I’ve always believed in Santa Claus.” she said. “I’m just like a kid again when I see one or look at the ones I have in my collection.”
Although she doesn’t know the value of all her Santa items, Spothelfer has spent lots of money developing the collection.
She said husband Paul Spothelfer has been supportive of her habit.
“I have my eye on a collectible Santa that costs $1,000, and I have to have a talk with him,” she said.
Viewers of California’s Christmas Tree on the White House lawn can thank Debbie Morines, 30, of Garden Grove for the clever decorations which depict elementary school education.
“It was great fun,” said the mother of two who sells decorations she makes at her Happy Patch home business to 40 stores.
She was hired by Nordstrom, which has provided the decorations for California’s tree since 1981, to make the decorations which were shipped to Washington and hung by volunteers.
The decorations, all sealed in see-through plastic spheres, consisted of school desks, chalk boards, school houses, school buses, tape measures and other school items.
“I didn’t get to go there and see it,” moaned Morines, “and as it came closer to the tree lighting, I said to myself, ‘Boy, would I have liked to be there.’ ”
