This adorable little Santa Claus is a little over six inches
tall seated but comes with a fantastic story that sounds more like a Tall Tale!
He came with a lot of Santas I purchased off
shopgoodwill.com. (If you haven’t visited their site: do so! But, be warned,
they do not package their items very well and items may arrived damaged.) When
I first picked him up, he looked more homemade than a typical mass-produced figure
and when I found his tag, I realized that he definitely wasn’t one of a kind.
BUT…After reading the tag, I found that he was MADE in the
USA. This is something you don’t see very often when it comes to mass-produced
retail items. Even higher end designer reproductions are farmed out to China to
meet consumer demands.
Collectable Creations, Incorporated is the partnership of
two sisters, Judy Holland and Charlotte Calistro Brown from what I’ve found,
sometime in the 1980’s. I am basing this on a couple of Etsy posts selling
their items created during that time.
Charlotte, a former teacher, started the company with
only $200 and by 1997 it had grossed $1.5 MILLION.
Sounds like a Tall Tale to me but it's true! $200 and, I'm sure, a LOT of effort!
The sad thing is, I don’t know if the business is still
open. When I called the number provided online, it turned out to be a personal
number.
But this I do know, he is a cute little guy and I do like
this outfit. Unfortunately, he is not the type of Santa I generally collect; at
least not anymore. I am trimming down my 1000+++ Santas and I am focusing more
on one of a kind (OOAK) figures or limited number reproductions.
The Santas I am selling can be found on eBay under
Santas2Sell.
So, let me tell you another funny story.
For a long time, I would see OOAK on eBay listings and
thought that this must be some elite group of people and I was wondering how I
could join such a group! Then I found out OOAK stands for One Of A Kind.
Good
to know!
