Day 339 – Black-Eyed Santa Rides Again!

December 4, 2016 – A recently resurrected annual tradition is back on the tree again.

When I was growing up we had this plastic Santa tree-topper. At some point, the bulb inside touched and scorched the plastic around Santa’s right eye and  the side of his nose. My Dad, ever the Mr. Fixit, took him apart and put a smaller bulb inside and taped him all back together with electrical tape.

For years we didn’t know what had happened to Black-eyed Santa but, given my father’s pack-rat tendencies, we knew he had to be around still. So when we helped Dad move to Cranbrook about ten years ago and started cleaning things out, we came across him. He even came back to the light when Dad put up a tree in his new house.

Then Dad moved into an apartment and had no room for a full sized tree. A small debate ensued over where Black-eyed Santa would move or, more specifically, that he simply MUST not be tossed out, and my brother confiscated him for a season. Then he showed up on my doorstep in a box in 2009. And so, old Black-eyed Santa moved to the top of our tree for the first time that Christmas.

I know it’s from “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and that he “…laid his finger aside of his nose….” but he kinda looks like he is picking his nose… Some things are just too priceless to replace…and really, I’m not a traditionalist in any sense…but I just find him so fun that I had to put him up.

And let’s be serious, I honestly challenge you to show me an uglier tree topper than this circa 1960 plastic Santa complete with a black eye and looking like he is picking his nose.

That aside, he makes us laugh and he comes with history and a story. So how can we not stick him on top of the tree? Kirk updated him last year; he removed the incandescent bulb and inserted some LED tape lighting so now he is completely safe and won’t suffer any further burns.

He has so much more character and charm than the pretty star that now stays in its box.

And now, with both Mom and Dad gone, Santa reminds me of my youth and looks down on me as if to say “No, life is never perfect, but it has always been perfectly imperfect”.

I don’t adhere to traditions, but this old guy on top of our tree is somehow…perfect at Christmas.