In this Christmas season of giving, it seems befitting that most of Susan Cheatham’s more than 60 Santa Clauses have come by way of gifts from friends and family.

Cheatham’s neat-as-a-pin west Bend home is tastefully decorated for the season with her Santa Claus, Father Christmas and Saint Nicholas collection. Some are jolly, some are skinny, and many are handcrafted, from around the world.

“It started with my friend, who gave me my first Santa in 1987,” said Cheatham in her Santa-decked house. “Then everyone started giving me Santas, so I finally had to say, ‘Stop.’ Last year, I actually gave away 20 other Santas.”

Giving nature

Perhaps friends and family think of Cheatham in the same way as they think of Santa Claus, someone who readily gives to others.

As a retired psychotherapist, Cheatham, 71, has been donating her time as a disaster mental health responder for the American Red Cross.

“You get a call from the Red Cross, and within 24 hours you’re on a plane,” says Cheatham, who has been on the scene after Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy and most recently the deadly landslide in Oso, Washington. “It’s an honor to be able to volunteer my time. It’s humbling, because people have survived a disaster and they’re trying to cope with it.”

That’s where Cheatham’s giving nature comes in as a psychotherapist; she helps people deal with their losses in the midst of the chaos.

As a disaster responder, she’s allowed to volunteer for two weeks at a time. The American Red Cross limits medical volunteers’ time, because the work is intensive.

“You really wouldn’t want to be there more than two weeks,” says Cheatham. “It’s really hard, because you’re dealing with many people who have lost everything.”

Cheatham says her pay-it-forward attitude started when a friend suggested she volunteer after Katrina in 2005. At first, Cheatham declined because she was still working full time in her private practice and needed income. Her friend offered to pay Cheatham for time away from her practice with the Red Cross in Louisiana.

After responding there, Cheatham was hooked and vowed that when she finally retired she would volunteer her time and be on the American Red Cross list, where she can be ready at a moment’s notice to respond to any disaster.

Cheatham made good on her vow when she retired to Bend five years ago, where both her daughters and her granddaughter also reside.

A Christmas home

Cheatham still hangs the Christmas stockings that belonged to her daughters when they were little girls and an original Christmas stocking that belonged to her in the 1950s along her stair banister.

Santas abound throughout the first floor of the house, and they are all artfully displayed.

Every Christmas, her favorite Santas seem to change, she said. This year, her favorites are the antique Santas.

“This one is probably from the 1930s or ’40s. It’s made of lead. It’s a relic of the past,” says Cheatham, picking up the little Santa on skis. “This Santa on the bike is probably from the 1950s. If you wind it, Santa moves.”

In her antique Santa collection corner, Cheatham has a robot Santa dating to the late 1960s. Most of her antique Santas were gifts from her son-in-law.

On her fireplace mantel, there are a dozen more Santas in all different shapes and sizes.

“These are the skinny Santas — there was a time period when the Santas all got skinny,” says Cheatham. “I have an African-American Santa here, too.” She picks up a gnome-looking Santa and jokes that it almost didn’t make the cut to stay in the Santa collection.

To stay in Cheatham’s Santa collection, every Santa must be unique or have a story.

Next to the fireplace is a handcrafted Santa painted onto a redwood tree branch. This was one of the few purchased by Cheatham herself.

When walking through Cheatham’s home, you begin to realize Santa Clauses can be fashioned from everything from wax, such as the Santa candle on the coffee table, to vegetables, such as the Santa from Mexico painted on a gourd.

Displayed on an antique, 1950s yellow Formica table with chrome legs is a wooden Christmas tree, a seasonal decoration Cheatham is especially proud of, as it took her 30 years to fill it with the miniature Santas and other decorations.

“My friend’s father actually made this for me. It’s wood, and on each level I glued on the decorations over the last 30 years,” says Cheatham, pointing to the mini-Oregon State University mascot near the top of the tree. “I’m very proud of the beaver at the top of this tree.”

Though the snow is piling up outside, this bright sunny home is filled with joy, as big Santas and little Santas bring a smile to anyone entering Cheatham’s home.

Like a real Santa Claus, Cheatham is again thinking she’d like to expand her volunteering not only within the United States, but also perhaps internationally in the new year.

The entire Santa collection in Cheatham’s home stands as a reminder about what the holidays are all about: the spirit of giving.

— Reporter: halpen1@aol.com