The world's largest Santa...
he was actually
originally created in Seattle in 1968
to stand outside the Westlake Mall.
It's kind of a mall promotion
for the holidays
so that the Merchant Association
actually contracted with a gentleman
by the name of Wes Stanley
who ran Stanley Plastics in Enumclaw.
Before he did Santa he
did a number of dinosaurs
and things like that.
It was
a massive scale
compared to anything
that he had ever done before,
and he actually had to build a five story
tall shed outside of his workshop
to be able
to put this Santa statue together.
He is actually a fiberglass statue.
He's got a steel frame work inside,
and then there is a wire mesh
that goes around the steel framework
and then fiberglass
is sprayed on outside of that.
I know that he's spoke
through a loudspeaker,
but I don't know if you ever waved
the arm or smoked a pipe.
I would love to hear
from somebody
who actually saw him
standing outside of Westlake Mall
to know whether he really did that or not
Because he
was a holiday
only promotional inside of Westlake Mall,
it became too much to do.
So he actually stayed in storage.
He was bought by the Anchorage
Chamber of Commerce,
where he stood outside
the federal building for a few years.
And then again
it became too much of a challenge.
So we bought him here
Santa Claus House in 1978.
The giant Santa really
is the best billboard
that anybody could ever have.
We probably have well over $100,000
into this statue
to keep him standing even 55 years later.
When you have a landmark
of that magnitude,
they really take on a life of their own
and you hear
all these urban legends about
the world's largest Santa.
The funniest one that I heard
repeatedly is
that his belly is actually
a Volkswagen Beetle.
There is not a Volkswagen
Beetle inside the world's largest Santa.
There are a couple of other places
in the world that actually will
do giant lighted Santas,
but my understanding
is that they're temporary.
Our Santa is the only year round
Santa on a scale of that magnitude.
So really
our giant Santa is the last one standing.