Your patience while this busy page loads
will make a favorable impression on Santa.
I'm just sayin'. ;-)
Pssst... I hear from my inside sources that Santa has left his workshop for a bit. Last seen going into the North Pole Bar for a little fortification before his grueling journey tonight, he should be gone just long enough for us take a little tour around the workshop and see what he and the elves have been up to...
As I mentioned in this post and some of my comments on it, when I was 13 my mom (with some help from my dad) created a miniature Santa's workshop inside the wood case of an old mantle clock. A few years earlier when we'd lived in Norfolk, Virginia, my dad had gone for an evening bike ride around our neighborhood of older homes when he spied the non-functioning clock left out with someone's garbage at the curb. So he plucked it off their pile of trash and rode home with it under his arm, presenting it to my mother with the remark (as many people often did as they handed her odd objects), "I thought you might be able to use this for something with your miniatures." Immediately mom thought the case would be perfect for a Santa's workshop (that's just how her brain worked), but she didn't start on it for a few more years. Meanwhile, though, she gathered illustrations of Santa's workshop from magazines and Christmas cards for ideas and inspiration.
But real inspiration came a couple of moves and a few years later, goosed by the nagging of my friends and the littler kids in our neighborhood whom she'd made the mistake of telling about her Santa's workshop plans. They were relentless (and to be honest, so was I) in their questioning, begging and cajoling. Probably to shut us all up, she and dad completed it in secret, and I only found out when I discovered it as my main gift under the tree on Christmas morning. Now, the Santa's workshop is undeniably awesome, but getting it as my main Christmas present dissipated much of the thrill. Thirteen was a long time ago, but I remember pretty clearly wanting cool clothes, jewelry, record albums and a bean bag chair (it was 1975, after all). A miniature Santa's workshop had never been remotely considered for a spot on my wish list. It took many years for me to come around and fully appreciate it (once I'd left home I didn't even take possession of it until I was in my 30's!) All the kids on our block, on the other hand, were utterly delighted. Of course they could afford to be, I'm sure they all got 10-speed bikes for Christmas! ;-)
This year we performed some electrical repairs and other maintenance on it and it's now proudly displayed in our refurbished living room, surrounded by a few... what else? Santas...
The original mantel clock case was dark brown and had a single door on the back that provided access to the clock's springs, gears and other inner workings. My folks removed the clock innards, painted the case an antiqued red, split the back door and added another set of hinges and a set of doorknobs. Painted alphabet soup noodles spell out Santa's Workshop. :-) (Looks like a mouse might have sampled a wee bit of the W at some point!)
Mom originally had two miniature evergreen wreaths on the doors, but the dried air fern-type material used to make them disintegrated over time and I had to toss them. So this year I made these new wreaths out of green pipe cleaners and decorated them with gold ribbons and miniature gold bells (that actually jingle!)
Okay, enough of the babbling tour guide making you stand outside in the cold snow! Let's go in! Though it will cause this page to load much more slowly, the following photos are the originals. There is a lot of tiny detail and I wanted you to be able to see as much of it as possible as clearly as possible. So click on any of the photos below for a larger, more detailed version.
My dad electrified the case with two miniature lights in the workshop and another little light bulb in the top of the diorama outside the window (what used to be the clock's face), which Mom colored with a blue magic marker to simulate winter moonlight. The diorama itself is a Crisco can that Dad cut in half and Mom painted and decorated in a winter scene, then screwed onto the front of the clock case....
I like the soft glow of this one taken without a flash...
It's not easy to get in there with my camera and photograph this miniature world in closeup! One bit will be focused and clear, while a nearby bit will be blurry. So I'm sharing multiple interior views to maximize some of the clear bits. :-)
That, of course, is Rudolph, accompanied by a young friend, peeking in the window (which is what makes him a reliable source of information regarding Santa's trip to the pub!) Note the cottonball "snow" on the window panes...
This next one gives a clearer view of Santa's workbench. I love the tiny tubes of paint and paintbrushes, the candle in the windowsill (with an actual blackened wick, no less), Santa's coffee pot and mug, and the plug, plugged into an outlet, on the far right by the teddy bear clown. That plug actually goes to a miniature soldering iron that's not visible in the photo (no, it's not an actual working soldering iron, and dad didn't electrify the workshop with working outlets! Even my parents had their limits!) ;-)
And your eyes do not deceive you, that is my name topping the "Good Girls" list. Scandalous in its inaccuracy, isn't it? Santa had incompetent bookkeepers. ;-) Also on the list, "Joni" and "Patty," two of my best friends (and top "when are you going to finish Santa's workshop?" nags). On the "Boys" list are Chris, a boy in school I had a mad crush on at the time; Brian, another friend down the block (and subject of the "stringing popcorn" story I told Molly in the comments section of this post), and "Sweets," my nickname for Marty, the boy next door. (But since it was Chris I was infatuated with, he won the top spot on the Good Boys list!) If your name doesn't appear on the list, don't despair - the book may be tiny, but it's thick! (Just to be on the safe side, though, you should be aware that Santa and I worked out a deal in which he awards extra goodness points to anyone who leaves a fun comment on my blog. No, really! It's one of the percs of topping the Good Girls list!) ;-)
Before you start poking around the workshop to find the toys that most delight you, I want to tell you about the pair of skis. I made them in my 7th grade shop class as a surprise Christmas present for Mom that year. As I was pressing one of the skis to the disc sander to make it nice and thin, that fast-spinning wheel grabbed the ski and flung it across the room and I ended up sanding part of the tip and pad of my finger off instead. It bled profusely and hurt beyond words, and I was sent to the school nurse who insisted on calling my mother to make sure I was up on my shots. I was belligerent in my insistence that she spill no beans about how it happened. In my pain-addled brain, I guess I thought my mother would immediately figure out that if I'd been injured by a sander in shop class, I must have been making her a miniature. :-) Anyway, the nurse kept my secret, my finger flesh grew back, and the skis were both a surprise and a big hit that ended up in Santa's workshop, and so my gift to Mom ended up a year later in a gift to me. Huh.
I know she's blurry, but see the Raggedy Ann on the far left of the top shelf, next to the clown? Mom painted her and made her hair out of craft-type bread dough. Dyed it red and pushed it through a very fine strainer to get those yarny-looking Raggedy-Ann locks of hair. My family is seriously demented. LOL...
Uh-oh, I hear jingling bells, ho-ho-ho'ing and the tinkling clank of beer bottles, so Santa must be back! We'd better Dasher on out of here (reindeer humor, nyuck) before we're busted. I hope you enjoyed your tour of the workshop, and that Santa brings you the toy you love best! :-)
with love and best wishes from the gang at Chez Laloofah ~
