By the chimney with care
What it is:
Snapshot measuring 5 x 3.25 inches.
What I know about it:
Nothing! Undated and unidentified.
Comments:
The annual advent of SantaCon left the streets of my neighborhood swarming with mobs of drunken revelers dressed as Santa Claus this weekend. (Plenty of Mrs. Clauses, too, along with elves, some reindeer, and even a Christ or two, but mostly Santas.) So inappropriate Santas were on my mind today. And that made me think of the rather creepy Santa in this photo. There’s a funny website called Sketchy Santas featuring a lot of vintage photos of alarmed children posing with unnerving Santas, and one of the things it taught me was how frequently masks were used in mid-century portrayals of Santa. This photo is a little too washed out to be sure, but I’m guessing this is a full mask, not just a beard. The whole scene is interesting to me. This is, I assume, a home, rather than, say, a department store display. But fifteen stockings? Wow. I noticed that while some presents have what we think of as normal wrapping paper, some are, if you will, brown paper packages tied up with strings. And is it grinchy of me to complain about his vest and tie, rather than a full Santa suit? I’m sure everybody had a good time anyway. I remember once as a child when my teenaged aunt showed up dressed as Santa. I wasn’t fooled for a minute. I played gamely along, but I kept thinking, “That’s not Santa, that’s Tracy.” Still, it was a lovely Christmas, so hopefully the one pictured here was, too.
Pics of Then 
The stocking design is Who-worthy.
It is indeed. They kind of look like actual stockings that have been decorated, rather than “stockings” specially constructed to be hung on the mantle.
Santa looks a bit like a nice Jewish tailor getting ready to take your inseam.
Well, after all, just because Santa knows whether you’re naughty or nice doesn’t mean he knows your measurements. 🙂