The Little Santa Band.

Our friends V and S drove up here today from Clear Lake for an early Christmas lunch. So nice to see them again. V and S lived around the corner from our old house and they came to all of our parties and invited us to theirs. Every morning when my husband walked Gracie, he would see V and her dog Beastie. Turns out that Gracie died one month to the day after Beastie died this past summer.

Out of everyone we have known since we moved here in 1993, our friend V can decorate a house for Christmas to within an inch of its holiday life. Each year, V came to see our decorations and I went to look at hers, to see who had out-Christmased the other, and (of course) to see whose ideas could be incorporated with our own. We are both proud to say that we have borrowed each other's Christmas ideas over the years.

V has a collection of Black Santas that has grown over the years into a huge community. The Santas are all over her fireplace mantel, her tables, her shelves, and she has a vintage post office cabinet near her staircase that's filled with those square postal cubby-holes... each cubby filled with a Santa or a Christmas decoration or a tiny plate or mug. V does what I do-- starts unpacking her holiday decorations right after Thanksgiving, and there's barely a spot in her home that isn't Christmased-out from one end to the other.

Every year, I try and get V a unique Santa for her collection. I was in just about every shop in this town and couldn't find V a suitable Santa to join her Santa Parade. Then I checked eBay...... sooner or later, you can find anything and everything on eBay. And there it was, tucked in among listings of your run-of-the-mill Black Santas....... a miniature Black Santa Band. Twelve Santa-musicians, each Santa holding a different instrument, each no more than 2 1/2" tall. Very detailed, very nicely made, and very very cute. The kind of gift that makes you smile, and smile big. The seller was in Indiana... the Santa Band had been in her own collection for years and years, but she was selling her holiday items because she just doesn't decorate anymore and she didn't want her prized Santas to be tucked inside boxes in her attic.

As soon as I saw that little Santa Band, I knew that V just had to have it...... and that's what I gave her for Christmas today. Twelve little Black Santas, which made V so extraordinarily happy that my face was hurting from smiling. I tried to find a little display shelf for the Santa Band, but couldn't find something Santa-worthy. What I did find, right in town, were hand-painted wooded blocks that spelled out HAPPY HOLIDAY. Twelve red and green blocks, for twelve members of V's Santa Band. How perfect was that?!

I wrapped up those boxes in gold paper and trimmed them with thick bows and stars. The boxes were so pretty that I used them as the centerpiece on the dining room table for our lunch today. Between the lunch and the dessert, I told V that she had to unwrap her gifts... first the blocks, which she set up in the middle of the table...... then she unwrapped the box with the Santa Band, set each one on top of one of the blocks. Then V started doing what I had done with the Santa Band before I wrapped them up-- arranging and re-arranging each of the musicians till they were on just the perfect block. V's husband S said that V would be "playing with that Santa Band from now till Christmas Day."

It was the perfect afternoon...... and the perfect gift. The Little Santa Band is now performing in Clear Lake.