Singing Santa on neighbor’s naughty list in West Palm lawsuit

Frank Cerabino

A life-sized mechanical Santa Claus that sings has spawned a lawsuit in a West Palm Beach neighborhood.

Last year, Miriam Galan, 78, found the $99 dancing Santa at Wal-Mart and figured it would be a fitting new addition to the extensive Christmas decorations and lights she already displayed in front of her Alhambra Place home in the city’s South End neighborhood.

“All the time people come by and take pictures,” Galan said. “It’s beautiful.”

The difference between the assorted reindeer, manger figures, inflatable snowmen and the mechanical Santa is that Santa is the only one that makes noise.

And Galan doesn’t have to listen to her Santa. She just plugs him in and goes inside to watch TV for the evening. And because she is hard of hearing, she turns up the TV loud enough so she can’t hear the Wal-Mart Santa going through his repertoire of four songs on an endless loop.

Imagine an inebriated Robert Goulet singing “Deck the Halls,” “Up on the House Top,” “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” over and over again for hours, punctuated only by some canned banter between the songs, such as “This is going to be the best Christmas ever!”

There’s a volume control on the Santa and also an option to have him sing his set list in Spanish. It’s designed for indoor use, but Galan plays it outside because it gives the passing motorists something to listen to while they look at her decorations.

“She falls asleep and doesn’t unplug it sometimes, and it runs for eight to 12 hours,” said Peter Haver, Galan’s neighbor across the street. “They should use this instead of waterboarding for terrorists.”

Haver’s wife, Galina, is a Russian Jew who was tough enough to withstand an interrogation by the Soviet KGB, she said. But she can’t take the Santa torture.

“We had to pull out and leave the house for two weeks last year,” the husband said.

The Havers and Galan have a history as neighbors. Most of it has been friendly and helpful. But the singing Santa, and the older woman’s reluctance to turn it off or bring it inside, has soured their neighborly bond, which was broken by complaints to the police and, finally, a lawsuit.

Haver, who is an attorney,