Гигантскую статую Санты в Северном Полюсе отреставрируют перед новым праздничным сезоном

Santa Claus is getting a makeover. This happens every 20 years for the 42-foot-tall statue in front of the Santa Claus House in North Pole. The refurbishment will repair UV damage from exposure to Alaska weather 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for the past two decades. He is made out of fiberglass, so he’s getting needed fiberglass repairs to his physique and then a new coat of paint. The paint will also hide some of the indignity he has suffered from bird droppings. This has to be done properly so Santa can look good for another 20 years. Built in Enumclaw, Washington, in 1968 for the Westlake Shopping Center in Seattle, the statue was first used as a gimmick to attract shoppers there during the holiday season. It was put up each Christmas and then taken down. That turned into so much work that the statue finally ended up in storage. An association of Anchorage businesses purchased it, and the Santa statue stood outside the federal building in Anchorage during the early 1980s before going into storage again. Santa Claus House bought the statue in 1983 and trucked it to North Pole, where it has stood ever since. “He was moved here in 1983, put up in 1984,” recalled Paul Brown, operations manager. “The very first winter, his arm broke off, so that got completely redone in 1985.” For a while, Santa stood right alongside the Richardson Highway on an 8-foot concrete base, but in 2017, he was moved farther onto the property. Today, he stands on a much smaller candy cane-themed platform. A crane was required to relocate him. “He’s never going to move again,” Brown said years ago. That’s a good thing, since Santa weighs 900 pounds. The artisans providing the refurbishment work for Graham Construction Services, the same company that helped with the newest addition to the Santa Claus House property — Silver Bell Square. “They are some of the best painters in town,” Brown said. The full refurbishment is expected to take two to three weeks because the fiberglass repair must happen before painting. Once complete, Santa will be in good shape for another 20 years, Brown said. The last time Santa got a makeover was 20 years ago when Hampton Inns spearheaded a nationwide highway landmark restoration program called “Explore the Highway with Hampton.” Refurbishing Santa was its fifth and most challenging project, according to news reports at the time. That complimentary restoration was valued at $40,000 and was conducted by McKinley General Contractors. For that job, Santa was enclosed in a huge, heated opaque bubble. The air had to be at least 40 degrees for the paint to dry. It happened during the first week of December 2000. It’s no surprise that people in North Pole feel a very personal connection to this particular Santa Claus and to the property, which was founded in 1949 by Con and Nellie Miller. There is a list of names that Santa holds in his hand, and concern has been expressed on Facebook that those names will be changed. The names will likely remain intact with no changes, Brown said. “We try to preserve a lot of what people love about the property while continuing to move forward and remain relevant,” Brown said. It turns out there are a lot of urban legends about this giant Santa Claus. “Most of them are not true,” Brown said. For instance, his belly is not made out of a Volkswagen Beetle. That belly measures 33 feet in circumference. And no, he was not built in 1962 for the World’s Fair. The iconic Santa Claus statue will remain where it is. In a short time, Santa will be cleaner, fresher and ready for the next 20 years. Reach columnist/community editor Kris Capps at [email protected].