Tag Archives: Pipes and Santa Claus

I walked through the door of the shop…and what to my wondering eye should appear?

Blog by Steve Laug

We live in a time of political correctness and a burgeoning anti-smoking lobby. More and more of the childhood characters that I grew up recognizing them by the pipe in their mouth have had the pipe eradicated. Frosty the Snowman is sans pipe, so is Old King Cole, Popeye and even Santa Claus. The ongoing removal of all things pipe and tobacco from the stories of some of my early childhood favourites continues with new victims being added each day to the blade of this hunt. It is irritating to see figurines of characters that the pipe was a part of their persona all mercilessly without the signature pipe. I have come to expect that when I see wood carvings of figurines the pipe will be noticeably missing. It is with that background that the events described in this blog took place.

I travel quite a bit for the work I do – both in Canada and globally. I am always on the hunt for pipes and tobacco shops for me but I also have an ongoing assignment to bring something notable home for my wife and four daughters. On a recent trip to Europe I was in Germany, visiting Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and then ending the trip with about 3 days in Berlin. Down the street from my hotel was a beautiful Christmas shop. My wife has trained me to pay attention to these shops and have a look. Over the years we pick up Christmas ornaments for our four daughters and ourselves at these shops to remember our trips. I could not pass up a visit to the Käthe Wohlfahrt in Berlin, which is open all year, located on the Kurfürstendamm at numbers 225 and 226 (opposite the famous Café Kranzler). I could not be that close to a Christmas shop of that renown and fail to visit it. If the wife and daughters got wind of the fact that I was that close to a shop they would have loved and did not take the time for a visit I would never live it down. Thus, with fear and trembling I knew that I needed to visit and make some purchases for the family Christmas collection. On the second morning I walked down the street and visited the shop.

The shop is huge. It fills two floors and as you wander through it you find baskets and trees and walls of wonderful ornaments, fine Christmas decorations and stylish gift ideas for every occasion. At the heart of the store is a winding, spiral rotunda, leading from the ground floor to the first floor, which allows you to walk up around a festively decorated tree. I have included the photo below and the link to their website for other Christmas lovers. https://wohlfahrt.com/102-1-berlin As I wandered through the shop I found that it was filled with many surprises from finally carved Black Forest Cuckoo Clocks to Christmas carousels with windmill blades on top that turned from the heat generated by candles. There were ornaments and carved table settings that all were amazing. But for this North American who has visited many Christmas shops around the world and in both the US and Canada the greatest surprise was the fact that many of the ornaments and displays had Santa Claus and other characters that were smoking pipes. These pipes were a prominent feature of the characters. I have to say that discovering this was a breath of fresh air for me. I have almost given up on finding Santa figures with a pipe let alone wood cutters, dwarves and elves all with pipes. I was delighted and took pictures all around the shop to capture some of the figures and displays showing pipes. There were so many that I easily could have filled a memory card with photos. The few I took convey the feeling of the prevalence of the pipe among the characters of the shop. I am including those photos in this blog to give you a bit of a feel for what I saw.

Use your imagination to walk with me up the winding, spiral rotunda in the shop and see the figures through my eyes. I felt like a kid in a candy shop. Not only could I find the ornaments that my wife and daughters would love but I could also take in the stirred memories of childhood characters from books and movies that were present with pipe in hand or mouth. It was astounding. In the first photo I took every character had a pipe in his mouth regardless of the figure. There must have been over 30-40 figurines in that display and all had different pipes. Some were short pipes like the ones in the photo below and some were longer old German style folk pipes. The next display that caught my eye was a shelf filled with a variety of Santa Claus figures. Every one of them had a pipe in his mouth all different pipes of various shapes and styles. Even the wooden cut out tableaus had pipemen featured in them. The picture below shows one such tableau with a wood-cutter taking a pipe break after cutting firewood. The first photo below is a close up of the wood-cutter. The second photo is of the larger tableau – with a base of at least 1 meter. Throughout the scene there were figures smoking a variety of pipes. Next to the wood-cutter was another tableau of a quiet clearing in the woods with trees and ground covered with snow. In that scene there were several figures at work, again all had pipes in their mouths. When I finished taking in as much of the shop as my mind and eye could contain I carried the ornaments I had picked for the wife and daughters to the cash register to check out. As I laid them down on the counter I looked up. And what to my wondering eye should appear? There above the checkout desk was another Santa figurine with a German Folk pipe in his mouth. Thanks for giving this old man’s written memories a read. For me the shop was a breath of fresh air. It was a delight to walk into a shop that still paid service to my literary and film memories of characters who I grew up with who still looked like I remembered them. It was a pleasure to see that those who raise the placard of anti smoking had not made their way into this bit of paradise and sanitized yet another place of memories from my childhood. Yes indeed, the pipe is alive and well in the figurines of at least one Christmas Shop that I visited. I only wish the shop was closer to Vancouver so that I could visit again to take in more of the incredible ornaments and figurines. Ah well, I will be back in Berlin again in the year ahead and will certainly visit the shop once again.

What Happened to Santa’s Pipe?

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I love the look of old Santa Claus carvings, especially when they include the pipe in his mouth or hand. To me they are a part of the image and mystique of the jolly, old gent. I can almost smell the aromas in the wreath of smoke that encircles his head. Whether you call him Sinterklaas, Saint Nicolas or Father Christmas, it is getting harder to find Santa with a pipe in the politically correct climate of the world in which we live. If you are like me, you have seen endless Santas with apples and oranges, dolls and toys in his hands or a finger next to his nose but rarely a pipe in his mouth. Over the years I have collected a few older figures that I put out each Christmas as part of our celebration and decoration. I also have some older Christmas books from the time I was a child (somehow the books are getting older every year!). These picture him with a pipe in his hand. I remember telling my kids stories of Santa and his pipe. But these days he is sans pipe! Every Christmas I am on the lookout for some of these old Santas – either carved or cast, in photos or cards to add to the collection. Here is an old one that I have in my collection.

With that information as a back drop for this blog post I want to talk about a discovery my wife and I made last week. Over the past three weeks we were travelling in Alberta, Canada for my work. It is a fall routine for me, having done the same trip five times now. This time we drove over 3000 kilometres and visited many of the towns in the province from the south along the US border to the northern part of the province. We met with individuals, businesses, churches and groups who were, or might be, interested in the work of the Foundation that I work for. We stayed in homes of friends and supporters in each city. It was a great trip for us; the first time my wife has joined me on this jaunt. Each small town and city we visited we made it a point to take some time to walk through small antique malls and second hand stores to look for estate pipes and pipe related items (ostensibly this was my reason).

On this trip I found several older pipes but what was really interesting was a find in a little shop called Holly Berries we visited in Grande Prairie, Alberta. It was a Christmas shop. Maybe it was the snow storms we drove through and the quiet prairies of the North Country that put us in a Christmassy mood but we were in that mood. We went through the front door of that great little shop and walked through the normal assortment of Christmas decorations and ornaments, looking and commenting on what we were seeing. They had the usual ones available for purchase – angels, stars, Christmas slogans. The place smelled very inviting with a mulled cider and fresh baking scent throughout the shop. The garlands of fir and pine – artificial but nice nonetheless – added to the festive spirit. Christmas carols and songs were playing in the background and we easily slipped into the nostalgia of Christmas past, present and future. We wandered around the shop picking up and looking at small and large pieces – crèches, shepherds, wise men, and Santa Claus. It had all the trinkets and adornments that decorate homes during the Christmas season. It was an interesting place to spend some time.

My wife turned toward the tree ornaments while I went off on my own to look at some of the carvings. In the centre of the shop I came across a display of carved and cast Santas that were different from the run of the mill Santas that are on the market today. This display was full of carved Santas smoking a pipe! I could not believe it and commented to the shop keeper that it was a pleasure to see the Santa Claus of my youth with his pipe and not in the new and politically correct pipeless posture. She laughed and said that the works were highly collectible (the prices on them would agree, though I see that on the website they are considerably cheaper). The figures are carved by Jim, then artisans produce clay molds, cast the figures in Polyresin and then they are hand painted and finished by artists using folk art techniques developed by Jim Shore. The attention to detail and ensures that the figures look and feel like real wood and have a quality that is unique to each piece. Here is his website with more information on his work http://www.jimshore.com/content/

I took a few pictures with my iphone so that I could keep a memory of what I saw. Below are the two figures that I really liked. To give you an idea of the size of these figures I have included the measurements. They are 10.25 inches tall, by 5.5 inches wide, by 6.5 inches long. By no means small, these figurines each have a personality that is unique and timeless. It is great to know that in this day and age there are some who still maintain the old memories and images of our folk story figures. There is nothing like seeing the merry twinkle in the eye of Santa and a puff of his pipe to remind you of the days of your youth and memories of seasons of family and friends.