Santa the size of a house!
Could he be Britain’s biggest?
AN INFLATABLE Santa the size of a house has appeared in a Swadlincote driveway – but the owner says it still is not big enough.
It is the second year that the six-metre high (20ft) Santa has stood proud in front of Melanie Ward’s George Street house, but she has her eyes set on an even bigger Saint Nick.
“I keep looking for a bigger one,” she said.
“It’s because people say to me, ‘Haven’t you got a big enough one?’ And I say, ‘No actually, I haven’t.’”
The current Santa, which reaches the roof tiles of Melanie’s house, set her back £160 from Amazon last year. It features internal lights and an electric blower which keeps it inflated.
“If you’re going to do it, you’ve got to do it big,” said Melanie, 45, a carer for the elderly.
The front of the house is also adorned with a giant inflatable Christmas wreath, featuring another Santa, a penguin and a snowman.
And it is not just the outside of the house that has been festooned with festive frills, with 1,400 lights inside the roof of the conservatory and 30 musical teddies underneath the Christmas tree.
“It looks like Santa’s grotto,” Melanie said.
And although she professed to be “young at heart”, she said she does it mostly for the children in her family, with six grandchildren and another one on the way, and in her neighbourhood.
“It’s all about the children, their faces when they come past on their way to and from school,” she said.
“I’ve actually got it on timers so that it’s up when they go past. The big smiles on their faces, that’s the sheer enjoyment I do it for. The joy on the kids’ faces is what Christmas is all about.”
Unfortunately the sheer size of the Santa can mean weather conditions sometimes make it too dangerous to have him up.
“We had a couple of people upset when he wasn’t up one night because of the wind,” Melanie said.
“But he’s already knocked out the security system in the wind, which we had to get fixed.”
But on the nights when it is safe enough for Santa, Melanie said it is the children’s reactions to seeing him that makes it all worthwhile. “When you love Christmas as much as I do and you see him there and you see the kids on the bus, and you can hear them shouting, ‘Look at the Santa!’ I know I’ve made someone happy and that’s the main thing.”
And although Melanie does not go on social media, she has also received a wave of praise and supportive messages online, which were read to her by her daughter, Jasmine Tyers.
Jasmine, 23, who lives nearby, said: “Christmas comes once a year and it’s all about family, so her doing this and knowing people like it makes her happy.”