For 55 years now, inside this red cottage with the slanted walls and green trim and the plywood snow dripping from the eaves, Santa has listened to countless hopes and dreams.
A skateboard.
An Alexa.
Good grades.
“Too late for now, right?” said Santa.
“Well, next semester,” said Joe Wolf, 20, of Smithton, wrapping up a visit Sunday afternoon with his younger brother John, 15.
They’ve visited Father Christmas here for years, but, at Santa’s suggestion, the big boys knelt next to him instead of sitting on his lap.
Santa’s House, as everyone calls it, sits in the town square of Belleville every year for about a month. But it looks like it would fit in just fine underneath an aluminum Christmas tree.
After all, Belleville brewer Alan Bott designed it and he and volunteers built it in 1963, about the time midcentury design and the Space Age and Santa all melded to evoke something colorful, inspiring and hopeful.
“It’s been the same for years,” said the Wolf brothers’ mother, Janet, who along with their father, Patrick, made Sunday’s visit a family affair.
Her own father, the late Harold Wright, was a member of the Optimist Club of Belleville, which sponsors the trailer, and wrote a history of the house for its website, bellevillesantahouse.com. It replaced an even tinier hut that used to sit on the square.
Santa’s House now sits on the back of a trailer bed, with wheels that come off when it’s parked for visitors. It’s been spruced up over the years, its carpet and roof replaced and a wheelchair lift added. The Optimists took it over in 1994 and use the money they make on photos to give back to children’s causes.
That’s when Michael Marquis began working at the house, helping out the photographer. He’s now the manager of Santa’s House and takes pictures of visits. A photographer by trade, he clears his personal and business calendar starting the day after Thanksgiving. That’s when Santa arrives during the Optimist Club of Belleville Parade and begins receiving visitors.
“Oh, just going by candy canes, probably over 2,000 children,” Marquis said of the visitor count this year.
Over the years, Marquis has seen families bring in photo albums filled with pictures of past visits, families who make a tradition of wearing ugly Christmas sweaters, and an older woman who came in year after year to pose her handmade dolls around Santa. She’d then give the dolls away to family members.
“And then one year, she didn’t come in,” said Marquis. “You kind of wonder what happened.”
And Santa (who, as far as the Optimist Club of Belleville is concerned, is the real Santa) has heard it all.
“I have heard things I don’t want to hear again and things that have been downright hilarious,” he said Sunday.
Children want their soldier parents to come home safe from overseas, he said. One boy, about 11 years old, asked for tomato cages. He liked gardening, he explained to Santa.
Why do visitors come to Santa’s House? It’s an intimate experience. Cozy. There’s an upholstered chair where Santa sits in front of a quilted backdrop. There’s a fake fireplace. (“It’s a magic fireplace,” Santa insists. “It’s how I come in.”)
There’s not much room for many more inside Santa’s House besides Santa, Marquis and a helper elf who prints out photos and trims them for folders or plastic, snowflake-shaped ornaments.
“I make the magic. Ha, ha!” helper elf Jen Knepper said on Sunday as she trimmed a sheet still warm from the printer.
There’s also room for two families: the family who visits Santa and gets pictures taken and the family who waits their turn. The waiting family comes in one door by Knepper’s tiny work area, where they can take off coats and wipe noses and smooth down staticky hair.
“Are you ready to tell Santa what you want?” Olivia Tomei, 34, of Freeburg, asked her son Dominik, 4, as they waited Sunday with his father, Steve, and brother, Elliott, 8 months. She visited Santa here as a child, and now it’s her own family’s turn.
“I need to go to the bathroom,” Dominik replied.
When it was his turn, he and his slightly wary baby brother posed for pictures. And while their parents paid for photos, Santa continued his quiet conversation with Dominik. He asked for Nerf guns and laser tag.
Santa sent him off with a candy cane, and the family exited a second door. Outside, the line to visit Santa at his house snaked forty deep along the edge of the square.
Santa will be at Santa’s House in Belleville on Sunday until 8:30 p.m. and Christmas Eve from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. After that, he leaves for the North Pole, to do his best to fulfill those Christmas dreams.
(Source: STL Today)
A skateboard.
An Alexa.
Good grades.
“Too late for now, right?” said Santa.
 | ||
| The littlest member of the Hemmer family of Belleville poses for a photo with Kris Kringle on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018, for photographer Mike Marquis. Santa's House on the square in downtown Belleville has been operating as a family photo tradition since 1963. Photo by Christian Gooden, cgooden@post-dispatch.com |
“Well, next semester,” said Joe Wolf, 20, of Smithton, wrapping up a visit Sunday afternoon with his younger brother John, 15.
They’ve visited Father Christmas here for years, but, at Santa’s suggestion, the big boys knelt next to him instead of sitting on his lap.
Santa’s House, as everyone calls it, sits in the town square of Belleville every year for about a month. But it looks like it would fit in just fine underneath an aluminum Christmas tree.
After all, Belleville brewer Alan Bott designed it and he and volunteers built it in 1963, about the time midcentury design and the Space Age and Santa all melded to evoke something colorful, inspiring and hopeful.
 |
| Families wait outside Santa's House on the square in Belleville to pose for a photo with Kris Kringle on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018. Photo by Christian Gooden, cgooden@post-dispatch.com |
Her own father, the late Harold Wright, was a member of the Optimist Club of Belleville, which sponsors the trailer, and wrote a history of the house for its website, bellevillesantahouse.com. It replaced an even tinier hut that used to sit on the square.
Santa’s House now sits on the back of a trailer bed, with wheels that come off when it’s parked for visitors. It’s been spruced up over the years, its carpet and roof replaced and a wheelchair lift added. The Optimists took it over in 1994 and use the money they make on photos to give back to children’s causes.
That’s when Michael Marquis began working at the house, helping out the photographer. He’s now the manager of Santa’s House and takes pictures of visits. A photographer by trade, he clears his personal and business calendar starting the day after Thanksgiving. That’s when Santa arrives during the Optimist Club of Belleville Parade and begins receiving visitors.
“Oh, just going by candy canes, probably over 2,000 children,” Marquis said of the visitor count this year.
 |
| Zane Stern, 3, of Millstadt, lists items on his Christmas list for Santa on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018, at Santa's House on the square in downtown Belleville. Photo by Christian Gooden, cgooden@post-dispatch.com |
“And then one year, she didn’t come in,” said Marquis. “You kind of wonder what happened.”
And Santa (who, as far as the Optimist Club of Belleville is concerned, is the real Santa) has heard it all.
“I have heard things I don’t want to hear again and things that have been downright hilarious,” he said Sunday.
Children want their soldier parents to come home safe from overseas, he said. One boy, about 11 years old, asked for tomato cages. He liked gardening, he explained to Santa.
Why do visitors come to Santa’s House? It’s an intimate experience. Cozy. There’s an upholstered chair where Santa sits in front of a quilted backdrop. There’s a fake fireplace. (“It’s a magic fireplace,” Santa insists. “It’s how I come in.”)
 |
| The Hemmer family of Belleville poses for a photo with Kris Kringle on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2018, for photographer Mike Marquis. Santa's House, located on the square in Belleville, has been operating as a family photo tradition since 1963. Photo by Christian Gooden, cgooden@post-dispatch.com |
“I make the magic. Ha, ha!” helper elf Jen Knepper said on Sunday as she trimmed a sheet still warm from the printer.
There’s also room for two families: the family who visits Santa and gets pictures taken and the family who waits their turn. The waiting family comes in one door by Knepper’s tiny work area, where they can take off coats and wipe noses and smooth down staticky hair.
“Are you ready to tell Santa what you want?” Olivia Tomei, 34, of Freeburg, asked her son Dominik, 4, as they waited Sunday with his father, Steve, and brother, Elliott, 8 months. She visited Santa here as a child, and now it’s her own family’s turn.
“I need to go to the bathroom,” Dominik replied.
When it was his turn, he and his slightly wary baby brother posed for pictures. And while their parents paid for photos, Santa continued his quiet conversation with Dominik. He asked for Nerf guns and laser tag.
Santa sent him off with a candy cane, and the family exited a second door. Outside, the line to visit Santa at his house snaked forty deep along the edge of the square.
Santa will be at Santa’s House in Belleville on Sunday until 8:30 p.m. and Christmas Eve from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. After that, he leaves for the North Pole, to do his best to fulfill those Christmas dreams.
(Source: STL Today)
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