By: Pam Wright, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Chatham Voice
If Santa Claus and his reindeer make a stop at Bonnie Fraser’s house this year, he might not want to leave.
He’ll feel right at home. That’s because the Ridgetown resident has been collecting Santas for the past 26 years, creating a mini-museum of sorts, amassing thousands of figurines, housewares, books and ornaments in honour of St. Nick himself.
Santa in an ostrich egg; a bowling pin Santa; Mr. Potato Head Santa; Santa on a Harley; European Santas; and singing and dancing Santas – sometimes with Mrs. Claus in tow – are part of the collection that fills her entire three-bedroom home and basement to the brim.
At this point, the retiree, 71, said she has lost count of how many she has, saying it all started with the $4 purchase of a cloth-covered Mr. and Mrs. Claus at a rummage sale.
Over the years, her collecting snowballed, with family and friends helping her add to the collection. Even strangers are in on the act, dropping Santa-related memorabilia off at her house.
“The kids would buy them for me for Christmas,” Fraser said of her children, noting “everyone” started picking up Santa stuff for her whenever they spotted something.
“You have to spend a long time here to see what’s here,” she said as she showed a reporter around the home. “There’s so many here and I just keep collecting.”
Fraser’s not sure of the year it was made, but an elderly woman she worked with gifted her the oldest Santa in the collection, telling Fraser she received it as a child. He’s a stuffed doll, replete in red suit and black boots, with a cherubic ceramic face and long white beard.
Hailing from a family of 17, the life-long Chatham-Kent resident said she has “always loved Christmas.
“My dad always made Christmas special,” Fraser said, noting her father built a wooden church for the yard she and her siblings used to play in.
Sharing her Santa collection during the holidays is one of Fraser’s greatest joys, when people visit and bring young children.
“I love showing them off,” she added. “The younger ones really enjoy it. I love to see the looks on their precious little faces. It’s special because they believe so much. That is the best thing about collecting.”
Fraser prides herself on the fact she doesn’t have any duplicates.
“You will never find two the same,” she said. “I do not like doubles.”
Fraser will be spending this year’s holiday with family, which along with her four children, includes 11 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
