Kate Abbey

< Santa >

“He’s big and fat and not as tall as daddy.”
— Nina (6)
“He lives in the North Pole — in a gingerbread house castle.”
— Alma (9)
“He’s pulled on a sleigh by magical reindeers.”
— Billy (8)

“The reindeer sleep in the stables next to the giant cabin.”
— Elliot (10)
“He has big black boots and really long legs.”
— Remy (6)
“He has to go really fast as there’s only 12 hours in one night.”
— Rosa (8)

“He feeds his reindeer rotten carrots to make them go faster.”
— Thomas (8)
“He has a magic sack,and when all the elves have jumped on it, it will be just a small sack.”
— Elliot (10)
“He says to the reindeer where to go and they just point that way with their horns.”
— Joshua (6)

“He has a magical compass to take him to all the boys and girls.”
— Elliot (10)
“His reindeer probably give off some unknown gas that allows them to walk on air.”
— Alice (9)
“If there’s no chimney he gets in with Christmas magic, or a second passage.”
— Kit (8)

“He’s very knowledgeable — he knows where everybody is and stuff.”
— Billy (8)
“He eats milk and cookies — and maybe melted ice.”
— Kit (8)
“Red hat, red jacket, red everything! But outside of the jacket there’s white and fluffy.”
— Billy (8)
“If he can’t get down the chimney, he goes through the windows and doors.”
— Gracie (8)
“The reindeer sleep in little sheds underneath the ground, kinda like a little underground bunker type thing.”
— Harry (8)
“For the rest of the year he just relaxes and enjoys doing stuff-like high-fiving elves, like stroking reindeer, and making snowmen.”
— Harry (8)

“We don’t see him. That’s what makes him special” — Gracie (8)

I’ve been wanting to properly explore Santa for years. There was something about his outlandish representation that I find intriguing and I wanted to reduce the myth of the perfect, jolly fella and bring him closer to me - into the real world. After all, he’s a just an everyday bloke dressed up in red clothes, heading off to do his job and earn an income.

I started to explore Santa in the everyday before he got to work, but it was the imaginative words of my niece that first brought sense to the process. The make-believe world she described, with superpowers and fantasy ideas, that lead me to forming a real version of how he actually went about his business. These men aren’t magical, with their naff PVC boot covers and the Velcro fasteners, there was nothing necessarily exceptional about them and yet they had their quirks and uniqueness, which still looked pretty special in my mind.

The magic is always wonderful, but it’s the reality that I love and find much more remarkable.