In 1998 the Suchcicki family—Mike, Lani, Kate, and Joe—were driving around looking at holiday lights. Naturally, the discussion turned to how the family would decorate its own house.

Lani and the kids tossed around all sorts of elaborate ideas. Mike, in a commentary on his own laziness, said that he wanted no lights, no fancy wire sculptures or inflatables, only a single light-up Santa in the front yard.

That Christmas, Lani and the kids, as a joke, gifted Mike with a small blow-mold Santa. The next year they gave him another, larger blow-mold Santa, and another the year after that. Each year the growing family of Santas was placed in the front yard for the holidays.

After the family gave Mike a blow-mold Tigger in a Santa hat— having not been able to find a traditional Santa—Mike, ever the Santa purist, asked to take over the annual Santa procurement. Each year the family adds another Santa to the flock. Most of the Santas have been purchased online, but some have been donated by friends, family, and even neighbors. There are a couple sets of duplicates but otherwise, all of the Santas are unique.

We are on La Borde Lane in the Northpointe subdivision off of Ninth Avenue and Olive Road. We generally put the Santas up on the weekend after Thanksgiving and take them down on the weekend after New Year’s.