Ho-ho-home sweet home
Up on the rooftop no more... Once the city’s larger-than-lifesize, iconic Christmas decoration, Tinsel Town’s Giant Santa is now a beloved fixture at Vandervalk Farm
The Giant Santa Claus wasn't something easily missed, even with its location atop a four-story manufacturing building at 93 Hazel St., just off East School Street. It had been there since the 1970s and was the landmark that helped customers find their way to Tinsel Town, Inc. Tinsel Town was a city company owned by Armand E. “Ted” Tedeschi Jr. and his wife, Judith, that manufactured Christmas decorations for wholesale customers around the country, and operated an outlet store on the first floor of its plant where folks from the area could get just about anything they needed in the form of holiday decorations. The business and its outside mascot were among the things people started thinking about as the holidays approached, and Santa always seemed ready to welcome in the new season from his Hazel Street perch. That is, until a day sometime after the Tedeschis had sold their business to someone else, Santa just disappeared. Cornelius “Casey” Vandervalk, the 66-year-old owner of Vandervalk Farm & Winery at 25 Lovell St, in Mendon, Massachusetts, remembers Santa's sudden disappearance well. Vandervalk – who, with his wife, Susan, operates a family business at the 25-acre farm offering farm-grown Christmas trees, blueberry picking in the summer, and a new winery operation – had been aware of the Santa Claus on the roof for years. In fact, he would use it as a landmark while driving down East School Street to Industrial Oil & Supply at 308 East School St. near World War II Veterans Memorial Park where he bought oil for his farm machines. After planting his first Christmas tree at the farm back in 1984, Vandervalk said he got a big idea about the Santa. “When I went by it with my wife, Susan, and the kids, I would say ‘some day I am going to own that Santa,’ because it would be great for the farm,” he said. As it turned out, Vandervalk was right.
After discovering the Santa missing from its perch during one of his visits to Industrial Oil & Supply, Vandervalk asked about the Santa Claus statue and learned the company taking over Tinsel Town from the Tedeschi family had closed the business and the building had since been taken over by a new owner.
Santa, standing just about 18 feet tall and constructed of fiberglass with an inner-wooden form, was supported by steel guy wires to keep it in place on the roof. After falling into a state of disrepair and posing a hazard to those below, Santa had been removed from the roof and stored inside the building on the fourth floor.
Vandervalk got the telephone number of the building's owner and called him to see if he wanted to sell Santa.
“He did, but he wanted a million bucks for it,” Vandervalk said while explaining the price of about $2,000 was more than he could pay.
The owner believed that the Santa, a piece of novelty sculpture of the type that can be found at roadside attractions and even theme parks, would be worth that much even in its deteriorated and disassembled condition.
After passing on the purchase, Vandervalk said he got a call from the owner about six months later.
“He said he had rented the fourth floor and needed to get it out of there,” Vandervalk said. “He said if I went there that day and got it out of there, I could have it for $200.”
Vandervalk went to Woonsocket immediately to complete the purchase and start what would become and extensive and expensive restoration of the longtime Woonsocket landmark.
It turns out that the Santa is one of several editions of the same creation that can be found around the country and even in New England. Vandervalk said that he knows of at least six, including a couple in Massachusetts and one out in the Midwest at a large Christmas Store operation. A similar Santa goes up on the Taunton town green for the holidays and the Magic Forest at Lake George, N.Y., has one at its entrance.
The new owner of Tinsel Town's Santa believes that a company, or an artist, had a form and turned out the Santas whenever an order came in for one. He doesn't know the exact origin, however.
Once he had Santa in Mendon, Vandervalk and his family assistants set about restoring the figure to its past glory. Santa broke down to about nine pieces that included the legs, a midsection, one chest section holding an arm, the other arm, and then the head pieces. There was damage to the fiberglass to be repaired, paint stripping of the disassembled pieces, and the design and installation of an inner support system to make Santa freestanding without guy wires.
Santa couldn’t be set up at ground level with guy wires because of the customers walking past it while heading off to tag trees or bringing them back. After completing the repairs, the construction of a new base from an overturned steel leach field tank and an inner steel frame in 2009, it was time to paint Santa and install him at a location overlooking the Vandervalk Farm gift barn.
You can't miss him when you drive by the farm on Lowell Street and spy him standing atop an outcropping of bedrock.
Vandervalk loves how the project turned out, but noted that in the end everything added up to about $2,200, a sum Santa apparently was worth after all. But he is also now an attraction at the farm and people often stop to take pictures in front of him when they come to cut a tree or have a hot cider or sip of wine in the gift barn.
Santa is a nice highlight for the farm that is also maintained by his five children, Billy, Sarah, Mary Anne, Lisa and Dan, and offers more than just a seasonal draw before its annual shutdown in early December. Vandervalk has sold most of the trees ready to be cut this year and will close for the winter today (Sunday).
In July, when blueberries are ripe on the farm's 750 blueberry bushes, kids coming by for “Pick Your Own Blueberries” with their families see Santa and think of the faraway holiday season.
Lisa, working the counter in the gift barn, said they even come in with requests.
“One little girl asked me if I could give Santa her letter,” she said.
That got her to thinking that the farm should even add a mailbox for the jolly old elf.
While he doesn’t know much about the history of Santa with Tinsel Town, Vandervalk said he did get to meet a member of the Tedeschi family who happened to stop by to see it one day. Armand had passed on by then, but his son, Peter, was happy to see it again and related how his father had put the Santa up on the roof of his plant and maintained it every year while he owned the business.
The farm’s customers also like Santa, just like Vandervalk does.
“Everybody loves it. Some people even recognize it and say ‘was that on the roof of Tinsel Town?’ and then I tell them the story,” Vandervalk added.