A Santa Claus collection is coming to town.
The annual exhibit of Val Berryman’s expansive Father Christmas collection will go on display at the MSU Museum today.
“I started picking things up in 1983,” the curator of history for the MSU Museum said. “I had been doing Christmas exhibits at the museum for a number of years before that and just ran out of materials from the museum collection.”
Berryman decided he wanted to demonstrate the different ways Kriss Kringle has been illustrated in history, so he borrowed items and found several pieces to display for the first exhibit.
“We filled a room with all these different Santa images and it was such a fascinating collection I started looking for pieces myself specifically to use in Museum exhibits,” he said. “So I’ve been at it ever since and I’m still finding new things.”
Since then his collection has grown - greatly.
He now has some 3,000 pieces. Finding Santa images from around the world is something Berryman said is fun enough to keep him in a constant hunting frenzy every weekend.
In addition to putting up the annual display in the museum, he has also put displays of his collection in several area malls.
“It’s just a free display on the history of Santa Claus and it’s nice because a lot of people have trouble getting on the campus,” he said.
“It allows us to get to the public to kind of introduce to people who may not have visited the Museum on campus.”
The Santa collection consists of papier-maché, tin, department store displays, home figures, ornaments and advertising pages from magazines. There are both secular and religious Santas and St. Nicholases in the vast collection, Berryman said.
“What’s special about my collection is the foreign images,” he said. “And I’m continually finding a story about what images will be like in these different countries.”
The display in the museum is made up of English, French, Russian and German pieces.
Kris Morrissey, the curator of education at the museum, said the exhibit is good for anyone wishing to learn the history of jolly Santa.
“The kids like the magic of the Santa Clauses,” Morrissey said.
“There’s something for adults to learn, too.”
She said families and children come back every year. And she also looks forward to seeing what Berryman will display differently each time.
“It’s kind of a fun, engaging exhibit,” she said. “There’s always something engaging - something that you didn’t know.”
Educating people about Santa is something Berryman said he does a lot. He teaches a night course on the history of the Christmas character and his collection was also featured in the November edition of Creative Home magazine, a publication of Better Homes and Gardens.
That’s something he’s proud of.
“I was excited,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to get something in a national publication like that, so I was excited to do it.”
Berryman said one day he will donate his vast collection to the university. But for now it’s stored safely in his home.
“It’s kind of taking over the house,” he said. “At first I kept them in cupboards and drawers and boxes and stuff, but it’s taken over some of my other cupboards. I have to be more creative in storing it.”
This season, about 25 German Santas moved from Berryman’s house to a display in the Kellogg Center - freeing up a little home space.
And officials at the center are happy to have Berryman’s Santas on display for the first time. Many hope the feature returns next year.
Sue Dutcher, administrative assistant for the Kellogg Center, said although Kellogg has its own Santa display, they welcomed the addition.
“We go all out on the holidays as far as decorating the hotel,” Dutcher said. “We just get all sorts of glowing feedback on our displays so I think our visitors look forward to the holiday season to come and see what we’ve done.”
