Shining Light Dims This Is The Final Year For Santa House, Bill And Nancy Hopkins’ Christmas Miracle

Of all his millions of helpers around the world, Santa is particularly grateful for one Deer Park couple.

For more than 20 years, Bill and Nancy Hopkins have devoted the top floor of their home and countless hours of their lives to Santa House - a place for children from all over to visit with the jolly man, confide their wishes and leave with a toy of their choosing.

But on Sept. 7, Bill Hopkins died. Nancy says Santa House is too much for her to handle alone. So this year, in addition to being a memorial for “Mr. Bill,” as he was known, Santa House will also give out its final toy.

Like most great ideas, Santa House started pretty much by accident. Bill had built a small log cabin - completely furnished with a bed, table and chairs, Christmas tree and the newspaper comics as wallpaper - as a Christmas decoration for the front yard.

While a friend of the Hopkinses was out sledding with their children, he decided to step into the cabin for a minute to warm up. As dozens of people driving by slowed to gaze at the structure, the man inside would give a little wave.

“And voila!” Nancy recalled. “Santa House was born.”

The first official year of Santa House was 1978. Nancy has detailed lists (that have been checked twice) of those who helped out each year and how many visitors came through Santa House. Numbers range from 82 the first year to 1,166 in 1995.

For the first few years, Bill and Nancy would work all year making hundreds of wooden toys - pull ducks, race cars, whistles - to hand out to Santa House visitors. Nancy has vivid memories of being in her workshop in 90-degree heat, sweaty and covered with sawdust, asking Bill: “Is it worth it?”

In response, he’d just point a finger toward the wall of pictures of the smiling faces of Santa House visitors.

That’s exactly what kept Santa House going for so long.

“You stand here and watch the kids come in, with their eyes lit up and their faces shining,” Nancy said. “It’s just a great thing.”

When the Hopkinses moved to their current home at 1617 Antler, they had more room than they knew what to do with. The top floor started as storage, but as the popularity of Santa House grew, it took over the whole room and claimed it as its own.

Santa House brings a little bit of the North Pole to Deer Park. Kids and their parents walk up a winding driveway lined with thousands of lights and dozens of wooden figures. As they open the door to the house, visitors step into a room warmed by a wood-burning stove, and full of good tidings and cheer - and a bit of magic. Glittery garlands, sparkling lights and shining ornaments hang from the ceiling. Red stockings cover one wall. And down at the far end, behind a lattice decorated with wreaths, pine boughs, candy canes and American flags, sits Santa in a fuzzy brown recliner.

Only children 12 and under are allowed through the kid-sized door to visit with Santa. Parents have a great view through another cut-out in the lattice, positioned precisely for the best photos.

Santa’s visitors are all greeted by an elf who takes their name and helps them onto Santa’s knee. Other elves are on hand to help out as needed.

“This is the best part of Christmas - coming to Santa House and seeing the kids,” said long-time elf Vivian Clemetson, as she dispensed hugs to small visitors. “I have no kids of my own, so this makes the holiday mean something.”

Of course, not everyone feels comfortable climbing onto the lap of a stranger dressed in red. Last week, Dakota Bauder, 2, clung to his father and whispered his wishes to Santa into his dad’s shoulder.

“I’m really nice,” Santa tried to assure him.

But Dakota’s brother Zackery, 8, and sister Helaina, 7, had no problem chatting with the North Pole’s big man. Their biggest difficulty seemed to be focusing on Santa, instead of the shelves and shelves of toys behind him.

After discussing whether or not they have been good and have kept their bedrooms clean, kids get to stroll around among dolls, stuffed animals, games, puzzles, books, crayons, wooden cradles and Easy-Bake ovens. Each child gets to take home one gift of his or her choice.

December 15, the first night of Santa House’s final run, was a hard night, Nancy admitted. She kept busy with a flurry of activity: shoveling the walk, feeding the stove, feeding visitors, turning on the lights, arranging, sorting, helping Santa get ready - all the things that used to be shared by two.

This year, a window display outside Santa House holds holiday figures as well as several pictures of Mr. Bill. Inside, two big scrapbooks are collecting visitors’ fondest memories of Santa House.

For Nancy, that this is the last Santa House, that it’s the first without Mr. Bill — her husband of 32 years - hasn’t really sunk in yet.

“It won’t hit till next year,” she said. “And next year, I won’t be staying home.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: If you go

Santa House welcomes visitors each night from 6 to 8 p.m. through Dec. 24. To get there, take Highway 395 to Deer Park. Drive into town on Main and turn right at the four-way stop on Crawford. Crawford turns into Deer Park-Milan Road. Drive east for about 2 miles, and turn right on Cedar, then right on Antler. Santa House signs are posted along the way.