By Marilyn Miller

Michelle Benson Lewis has always been a collector of vintage stuff, hearkening back to the days when she and her Mom would hit up the estate sales in the area on any given weekend.

Right now, she’s refurnishing and restoring an old cottage, which she will rent out as an AirBnB. Like she needs something else to do – she works for Main Street Thrift, is a co-owner of an animal rescue in north Webster Parish, and is presently restoring a vintage 1940s Harold Gale Santa Claus which first appeared in the H&B Drugs’ Springhill show window in 1960.

Easy peasy, right?? No problem restoring a 64-year-old life-size replica of St. Nick. Except when there are no vintage elves around to whip the jolly fat drover into shape. So,if you are Michelle, you collect your own team of elves to do the 24-month job.

But first, there’s the psychology of the project.

Why go to the trouble of finding or repairing a rare motor that causes Santa’s upper body to bend and bow like a gentleman of his time? Why go to the trouble of repainting Santa’s face, recrafting Santa’s pink suit (yep, pink eventually!), his white beard, his white boots, and rebuilding most of Santa’s wood and metal body and limbs??

“Just to take people back to the nostalgia of Christmas in their childhoods…to bring back that calm and happiness of the past when kids were innocent. They didn’t have a care in the world,” Michelle explained. Plus, she just likes vintage stuff. Add to that the opportunity to display the Christmas scene in the Main Street Thrift display window.

The only original, usable parts of the Santa are his hat, a glove and head. Because of this, it will probably be December of 2024 before the Harold Gale Santa is completed and ready for “safe and reliable” animation.

When Michelle decided to take on the “H&B Santa Project,” she first did her research. One writer who put together the history of the exact Santa that Michelle is working on is Jeremy Drouin. In 2020, he wrote the following:

”It’s a Kansas City Christmas Story we think you’ll enjoy!

The husband-and-wife team of Harold and Viola Gale began making Santa Claus figures out of their midtown apartment around 1946. Harold had worked as a display manager for the Woolf Brothers clothing store, where he designed custom Santas for holiday window displays. When other Woolf store locations sought his services for their Christmas displays, Gale and his wife were inspired to fill a market niche by starting their own business.

The Gale home was a veritable Santa’s workshop as, nights and weekends, they assembled wire-framed figures by hand, painted composite faces, and sewed Santa suits. As sales grew, the couple saved enough to rent a room inside the Manhattan building at 728 Main Street. Soon, the operation expanded to 18 rooms. With their business turning a profit, the Gales were also able to purchase a small house in the Westwood neighborhood near the Country Club Plaza.

Like a child’s Christmas wish list, their company continued to grow. By 1957, the Gales had relocated the factory six blocks south to a four-story warehouse at 13th and Main streets. The larger space was needed to house thousands of square feet of lumber, wire, plastic molds, rolls of velvet, and corrugated boxes – essential components in their successful Santa-making enterprise.

As many as 40 employees worked in the plant assembling the Santas and other holiday figures. Viola Gale had a hands-on role in production, overseeing the design, sewing, and cutting of fabric and sculpting of plastic molds.”

Ok, so back to those elves??

After researching, Michelle then joined several groups, like one whose members specialize in Christmas animation, which involves motors. So, the first job Michelle tackled was repair of the motor, and that was nearly a year after she came into possession of the antique St. Nick. She contacted Mark Morgan, gave him the motor, then stretched out for a long winter’s nap…. Two hours later he was back with her motor and “within another two hours, Santa was moving.” She couldn’t believe it! Mark has since tuned up the motor so there will be no hiccups in Santa’s performance.

Most of the wood parts of Santa had dry-rotted and were going to have to be replaced and repainted. Betty Null of the Art League volunteered to take on the job. She repainted the features on Santa’s face, used Styrofoam® to connect the head and neck to the shoulders, and guided Michelle through the suit-making process.

“The original Santa was wearing a pink suit with white boots,” Michelle said. “His beard was made out of angel hair that was sprayed until it was stiff, and then it was stapled to his chin.”

Those are chores for another time.

When the H&B Santa Claus restoration project is completed in 2024, Santa will do something that the original Harold Gale Santas didn’t do. Just like the H&B Drugs Santa Claus in 1960, he will be attached to speakers from which a hearty and loud “HO, HO, HO” will be broadcast.

Don’t miss it! The Main Street Thrift Store show window, 233 South Main, Springhill.