This Year Santa Has Hair

A few years ago, Tom bought eleven reindeer from Mark, our friend who Tom met at Pulmonary Rehab, an exercise program they go to twice a week.  Tom intends one for each of our grandchildren.  I suggested that we keep them until the grandchildren are settled in homes of their own.  At the moment most of them are only living a short time here and a short time there.  Lots of things get lost in the shuffle between moves.  

A few weeks later Tom came home with a box for me.  Mark made me a sleigh and my very own reindeer.  This one has a red pompom for a nose.

The first two years the sleigh was empty.  Then I decided I needed a Santa in that sleigh.  I started looking but I couldn't find one the right size.  

Then, one day when I was looking at gloves, I came up with an idea.  The gloves I was looking at were those stretchy kind, the one size fits all kind.  But I really liked was the fingers.  For some reason they had been designed with fingers that were half red, half black.  The black would make perfect Santa boots.

So here he is...

I started with one glove. The middle two  fingers became his legs.  I tucked the outside two fingers into his coat and stitched them in place.  The thumb became one arm.  From the second glove, I cut the thumb and stitched it into a slot on the first glove.  The cuff of the glove is his collar.  

I cut off the toe and part of the leg of a white panty hose. I stuffed the toe  with cotton and gathered the open end to form a ball for the head.  I gathered small stitches around a circle in the center front to make a nose that would protrude and drew a face with Crayola markers.  The beard is baby yarn, unraveled. I stuffed the base of the toe down into the cuff of the glove. The hat is a small plush Christmas stocking with the heel cut off.

Santa stayed this year for several years.  It bothered me a bit that his head was bald but that didn't show if I shoved the head far enough into the hat.  

But this year...

I sewed some yarn hair on that poor bald head.  However he still has a partly bald head.  If he is sensitive, he'll just have to keep his hat on.