The Santa parade....

.... and there's always room for just one more. Every time I go to the thrift shops looking for things for my space in the antique store, I find these cute little vintage Santa figurines on the shelves. Those twinkling little hand-painted eyes stare up at me and say Take me home... take me home.... And of course I do, with the intention of putting a price tag on them and displaying them (and selling them!) on the shelves in the antique store. Somehow, that doesn't happen.

As I clean off the dust from their beards, boots, and hats, the Santa faces come to life and I just can't put a price on their jolly old heads. This afternoon, I walked around the living room and dining room with a porcelain Santa in each hand.... surely there was room somewhere for just two more Santas. And there always is.... I must have nearly 90 Santa figurines now. Big ones, little ones, miniature ones... vintage ones mostly, with a few new-but-old-looking Santas tossed into the Christmas parade. They all seem quite happy.

My friend V back in Clear Lake has a Santa parade also..... every year, her Santas come out from the storage boxes and she lines them up on her mantel, her tables, her window-sills..... and she has a vintage postal-style wall of cubby-hole squares that hold countless Santas and Christmas decorations. V's Santa collection is legendary..... and every year, she finds 'just one or two more.'

The "find of the day" at the thrift shop today was a Victorian two-story house music box, made by the San Francisco Music Box Company. Just $7, for goodness sake.... when the Christmas music plays, two couples dance and twirl in the first floor living room of the house, and upstairs, a little girl is saying hello to Santa after he comes down the chimney. As the music plays, the fireplace lights come on, and the dancing couples and the little girl move around effortlessly. When I saw that on the shelf in the thrift shop, my first thought was to put a $49 price tag on it and bring it to the antique shop. It's in perfect condition, and the San Francisco Music Box Company does not make cheap products.

However..... once I got that Victorian house home and dusted off its roof and wound up the key to make the music play.... and the lights in the fireplaces came on.... and the couples started dancing.... and up in the attic of that house, a little window opened and a cardinal came out on a perch and chirped--- that was it. There was not going to be a price tag on that Victorian house/music box. It is now sitting in the front hallway next to the guest book.

Jingle bells. 38 more days until Christmas.