Jim Morrison is a protege of Santa Claus, and the National Christmas Center is his gift to those who want to believe in the magic of the holiday season.

Since childhood, Morrison has collected keepsakes from his favorite holiday, starting with a glass Christmas tree ornament he found in someone's trash. As he grew older, his collection grew larger and more impressive.

He always dreamed of creating a museum that would celebrate the best of the yuletide season, and five years ago he found the place to do it: a 20,000-square-foot banquet hall on Lincoln Highway East.

"I've wanted to do this for 35 years," Morrison said. "And when the chance came to do it, I was overjoyed."

But the spirit of the National Christmas Center still eludes some people, especially tourists.

"A lot of people think we're a store, that we sell Christmas decorations," Morrison said. "We don't. We offer people an experience. At the moment, we're one of Lancaster's best-kept secrets."

But probably not for long. The center just received a generous write-up in the December issue of Martha Stewart's Living magazine, in which Morrison was praised for his collection of vintage decorations.

What the article didn't mention are the 250 handmade wax figures used to re-enact various Christmas settings from decades past.

There also is an exhibit devoted to Nativity scenes, including one that is more than 200 years old and a large modern Nativity that was saved from a scrap yard in Montreal.

One room pays tribute to tree ornaments with a display case that chronicles their beginnings. Another room is a homage to Santa Claus. There are dolls galore and images of the jolly elf when he was called Belsnickel in northern Europe. Some images are copies of artwork from the 1700s and show Santa riding a sleigh pulled by turkeys. Another image portrays him living in an ice cave.

There also are penny postcards of Santa from 1899 and magazine ads from the '30s and '40s that incorporate Santa into ads for Chesterfield cigarettes.

"It's part of the history," Morrison said. "Santa was always evolving, depending on the imaginations of the artists."

Other breathtaking exhibits include an electric train set that almost takes up an entire room and runs beneath a Christmas tree that appears to be growing into the ceiling. There also is an entire section devoted to the birth of Jesus.

Visitors can get an inside look at Santa's workshop - an exhibit filled with movable, singing elves working busily as Father Christmas (a real man) sits patiently in a corner, waiting to hear the wish lists of grown-ups and children alike.

On occasion, Father Christmas is Bart Wittorff, who was named Lancaster's official Santa by City Council in 1997. After a near-fatal car accident in March, Wittorff wasn't sure when he would be able to resume his holiday duties. But now he's found a home at the National Christmas Center.

"I was amazed at how beautiful this place is," Wittorff said, clad in a velvet red suit, hat and beard. "It's good to be here, too. Listening to people's Christmas wishes can be moving."

Morrison also has a fluffy white beard and a habit of wearing red shirts, but he is not in costume.

"There's a saying about pets and their owners," Morrison said. "J. Edgar Hoover started to look like his bulldog, and so on. Well, this is my pet project, and it rubbed off on me. But I always had a beard. It's just that it turned white over time."

But he said children still react to his appearance, no matter where he is.

"I'll be in a restaurant and I'll hear a squeaky little voice say, "It's Santa!' Then their parents shush them," he said. "But I just catch their eye and give them a knowing look. That's fine if they see me as Santa."

Morrison has an encyclopedic knowledge of Christmas and can retrace the origin of any tradition.

The Christmas tree, for example, is a German tradition that may have started as early as A.D. 700. In the 1800s, the Christmas tree tradition was widespread in Germany, then moved to England and then to America through Pennsylvanian German immigrants.

"The first Christmas tree was here in Lancaster," Morrison said. "After that, the tradition spread throughout the country."

Morrison's true passion for the holiday, however, stems from his childhood, when Christmas was thought of as a magical time when anything could happen. He said that's why some of the exhibit rooms in the center look like a child's dream come to life.

As for adults, he hopes the exhibits trigger memories.

"There was this one couple who had lost both their sons - one to cancer and another was a fireman who died during the 9-11 World Trade Center disaster," he said. "They came here and I spoke with them. They never found their son's body, just his helmet, and it was buried at a funeral that was attended by 5,000 people.

"The place reminded them of spending Christmas with their sons. She wrote me a letter, thanking me for this place and called it her church. Memories are everything to most people."

Morrison said that's why people often will see something familiar in the display cases.

"When somebody looks in a display case and says, "Hey, that's my Christmas mug when I was a kid!' I love when that happens," he said.

Mostly, Morrison wants the center to move people, especially families.

"Some come back three or four times a year," he said. "This place has become a family tradition for them, and that's what I hoped to achieve most of all."

The National Christmas Center, 3427 Lincoln Highway East, Paradise, is open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Admission is $5-$9. For more information, call 442-7950. blog comments powered by Disqus