00:00 Do you remember this giant Father Christmas which towered over shoppers in
00:05 Blackler's department store each winter up until 1988? Well this festive season
00:12 he's on display in the Museum of Liverpool. After acquiring the Jolly
00:17 Fellow in 2016 he's returned for Christmas almost every year since.
00:22 When visitors come in and obviously the scale of Father Christmas is massive but it
00:26 really transports them back to kind of Christmas time, being a kid, getting your
00:30 favourite toy that you've been wanting for ages. But I think going queueing,
00:35 waiting to see Santa in the Winter Wonderland which everyone remembers it
00:40 was such a kind of key moment at a kind of Christmas time for everyone and it's
00:44 such an ingrained kind of family moment and when people come with their
00:48 grandchildren you can see that kind of delight in their faces and it's creating
00:52 new traditions and memories for children today. The 18-foot Santa stands proudly
00:57 in the museum's atrium greeting visitors with his jumbo smile. Five meters is
01:02 pretty high but originally when he was in Blackler's he was also on a platform
01:06 so imagine how tall he would have been then and as a small kid seeing that for
01:10 the first time. This special Father Christmas was originally made in 1957 by
01:16 artist Peter Blasey and his colleagues in the Blackler's display studio.
01:20 Blackler's was a well-known and loved department store in Liverpool famous for
01:25 its elaborate Winter Wonderland grotto and this giant Santa. He's an old friend
01:30 now for me this is the sixth time I've installed him so it's just such a great
01:35 moment to look forward to and kind of bringing those memories back for people
01:39 but also kind of making it real for kids today who never got to experience it at
01:43 the time. More than 10,000 visitors a week marveled at the magical scenes and
01:48 told Santa what they'd most like for Christmas. For the museum when we're
01:53 such a part of the community and telling the stories of Liverpool history about
01:58 the past and kind of the present so we're all about kind of keeping the
02:03 original but also kind of making it new too. Following the stalls closure in 1988
02:09 he made occasional appearances around the city to raise money for charity
02:13 however after many years his original cane body and costume could not be saved.
02:18 In 2013 Peter kindly donated the models head, hands and boots to the Museum of
02:23 Liverpool and transformed Santa faithfully recreating him to spread some
02:29 Christmas magic to all. So the head, hands and boots are original they're made of
02:35 plaster and the the body after so many years of use at Blackler's unfortunately
02:40 couldn't be saved so Peter's team very kindly created a new body and costume
02:45 for him which was funded by Phil Redmond the trustee of the museums at the time
02:50 and so it's kind of half original and half new but still Christmas magic has
02:56 gone in to create him. Well he is on display until the 7th of January but he
03:00 will be leaving to deliver presents don't worry.
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