The Santa Clones Are Coming to Town
"Yes, Portland, there is a Santa Claus."
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A Tale of Two Vintage Santas
In December 2020, when you could still only sit at outdoor tables on the snowy Henry Street sidewalk at Long Island Bar, I took to admiring a vintage plastic Santa Claus all aglow who looked down upon the crowd from the window of the corner apartment above the bar. Once I started Googling “vintage Santa decoration” I learned that this particular style, once popular in the ‘60s and ‘70s, was known as a blow mold Santa.
And then I started seeing vintage plastic Santas throughout the neighborhood—at the hardware store, in the window at Sahadi’s, at a barbershop, at the bakery. And it seems I wasn’t the only one struck by a nostalgic urge to have my own blow mold Santa as the only ones I could find still find available on eBay came in all shapes and sizes and were extraordinarily expensive. The retro appeal of Halloween and Christmas blow mold decorations remains strong, and this time of year you’ll encounter blow mold Snowmen, Noel Candles, Christmas Trees, and the full cast of the Nativity scene. But the original blow mold lawn decoration was the iconic Pink Flamingo, created by Union Products in 1957, the first project of designer Don Featherstone right out of art school.
But I got ahead of the game in 2021 and just after Thanksgiving tracked down a vintage 1968, 22-inch blow mold Santa that was shipped to me, working light socket intact, from Wisconsin. The price was reasonable but the shipping was equal to its list price. When it arrived the box sounded like it was filled with broken glass. I was surprised to find a handful of rocks rattling around inside the hollow Santa, but I soon realized they were there for ballast to keep him upright. This Wisconsin Santa likely stood sentinel outdoors and needed some extra security against those lake-effect winds. When I sent Toby Cecchini, card-carrying Wisconsinite and co-owner of Long Island Bar, a photo of my new Santa he was bemused and also deemed the mouth on my Santa as “a little lurid.”