Santas by the thousand

Eron Ben-Yehuda

Santa Claus comes only once a year, but Huntington Beach resident Hope

Orta sees him about 2,000 times.

She guesses that’s how many likenesses of Old St. Nick she has collected

over the last 40 years.

“We stopped counting when we got to 1,800,” she said.

A chubby face smiles back at you almost anywhere you look in her home.

There are figurines, dolls and toys showing Santa doing everything from

delivering mail, to playing piano, to surfing. His true calling, of

course, is making wishes come true. If you’ve been good this year, the

37-year resident will let you make a wish as you sit on her life-size

stuffed Santa.

Her son Tony, 49, remembers ‘tons’ of folks running through the house

when he was a child.

“She would share this with the whole neighborhood,” he said. “It was

automatic for everybody to come here for Christmas.”

Some people say she should charge people who want to visit, but that’s

not the spirit of Christmas, the North California-native said.

Every day, after she wakes up and before she goes to bed, she “makes the

rounds,” admiring every piece in her collection.

“I never get tired of looking at them,’ she said. “They look new to me

all the time.”

But that doesn’t stop her from buying another one every year, she said.

The latest addition is an egg timer shaped like you know whom.

Despite having so many Santas, Orta says she has only one wish.

“I would like peace all over the world for the children’s sake,” she

said.