It is always a blue Christmas at one Fallbrook home

If you're passing by Carol Hanson's Fallbrook home during the holiday season, you probably wouldn't be able to tell that she has a unique Christmas collection on display inside her home.

"We have just very simple decorations out front and we live on our back patio, except when it's very cold," Hanson said. "I do have a little bit of decoration back there, but mostly it's in the main part of the house."

The "it" Hanson is referring to is the collection of 700 blue Santa Clauses she brings out for the holidays each Christmas.

She has blue Santa figurines as small as two-and-a-half inches tall to a wall-sized blue Santa, and all 700 of them pretty much take over the home she shares with her husband.

"Most of them are different standup figurines," she said. "And I have a white Christmas tree that's full of just blue Santas and blue Santas are all over the rest of my house. When you see it, you'll be sort of surprised."

Now, it's not unusual to find a home that goes way over the top with Christmas displays, it's not even crazy to imagine there are people out there with significant Santa figurine collections.

But, blue Santas only?

"So, I used to work at an antique store and when I worked there, I learned that Santa used to be in every color and I'm talking purple and orange and everything before the turn of the century," Hanson said. "And then Coca-Cola made the red Santas famous. So, after that you pretty much only see red. But in the antique stores, there's a lot of collectibles and small things that are all different colors. I always liked blue, I'm part Swedish and they decorate a lot in blue. My house at the time when I started doing this was kind of blue. I just picked that as sort of a choice to go with and it took off."

This isn't the first time the local news has picked up Hanson's story. San Diego County TV personality Larry Himmel interviewed Hanson in 2003 when they lived in Mira Mesa.

"I had about 200 fewer Santas than I have now," she said.

Though Hanson said she no longer actively seeks out new blue Santas for her collection, family and friends still gift her new ones every year.

She doesn't give tours of the collection, but she said she hosts several gatherings throughout the holiday season and anybody that wants to come see it is welcome to.

It's a nice payoff for all the work that goes into putting them all on display.

"It's fun, but it's a huge undertaking because I put everything away that is out in my house all year long on all my shelves and cabinets and everywhere and pack them all up," Hanson said. "Then we get these out which are stored in the rafters above my garage and it takes a couple of weeks to get it all done."

One might think her husband might have had enough of the blue Santas, but you would be wrong.

"I think he's pretty jazzed about it too," Hanson said. "I mean it's kind of my baby, but he gets into it and he helps, and I think he's kind of proud that it's just sort of unique."

Jeff Pack can be reached by email at [email protected].