Following a restoration, the historic 14-foot Livingston Santas will be displayed in Bloomington and Normal after being in storage for nearly 30 years.
One Santa will be displayed in Uptown Normal near the Children's Discovery Museum, and the other will be displayed in Downtown Bloomington on the McLean County Museum of History square.
History
The Livingston Santas were displayed on top of Livingston’s Department Store in downtown Bloomington from the late 1930s to 1979.
“These Santas would go up every year, and that was the kickoff of the holiday season in Bloomington-Normal and McLean County. It wasn't Christmas until the Livingston Santas went up," said McLean County Museum of History development director Norris Porter.
The Santas were moved to College Hills Mall in 1979 and they stayed there until the mid-1980s. They were then purchased by Jeffery Alan Wandell who displayed them at his shops in Normal and Champaign until the mid-1990s.
Porter said the Santas were not able to be outside anymore with the state they were in, which is why Wandell moved them into storage.
Wandell gifted the Santas to the museum in 2023 and donated $10,000 to kick-start the restoration funding.
“Those Santas have a lot of memories,” said Porter.
Restoration
Porter said only one artist bid on the restoration project: local sculptor Andrew Jumonville.
“When Andrew got them he actually scared us,” said Porter. “Because we would walk into the workshop, and he would just peel a piece off the outside.”
As part of the restoration process, Jumonville has added a several-hundred-pound metal structure inside each Santa.
“And then the inside is filled with a foam-like substance that expands where it has been dented in or has holes in it,” said Porter. “[Jumonville] then had another foam-like artist material that sprayed on the outside, and then he would resculpt it where the places were indented.”
After the resculpting process, Jumonville had to repaint the Santas. He used old photos as references to get them looking as close to the originals as possible.
Porter said when he went to go check on the Santas after the repainting, “it was just like it was Christmas morning.”
“You're standing there in the footprint of this ginormous Santa. You put your foot next to his, and you realize you could fit like 10 or 15 of your feet inside of his feet. And it was just magical. And I think it's going to be magical for the community,” said Porter.
The restoration became more expensive than originally anticipated. “One turn leads you to another turn [that] leads you to more money," Porter said.
While a volunteer crew moved one of the finished Santas to storage, Santa got paint scratched on his glove.
“We're trying to raise $85,000 so that we have a little bit of money that we can invest so we're not always going back to the community [for donations] every time Santa needs a dent fixed,” said Porter.
Funding
The museum announced the Saving Santa fundraising campaign on Christmas Eve 2023.
In addition to Wandell's $10,000 gift, a soon-to-be-revealed presenting sponsor donated $20,000. Everything else has been community funded.
The museum is seeking donations and is still over $25,000 away from its fundraising goal.
"We think it's going to be a wonderful way to bring back this flood of memories that people can share with a new generation, and kind of bring people together," said Porter.
Those who are interested in donating can do so on the museum website. The Santas will be revealed on Saturday, Nov. 30, at 11:30 a.m. on the museum square.
