Up on the rooftop, reindeers pause, out jumps good ol' Santa Claus
For over 50 years, members of the Meyskens family have put up variations of this hand-made, painted-plywood Christmas display
By Tom Meyskens
The roots of the Meyskens Christmas sleigh tradition date back to 1974. My first wife, Betty Lou, and I had moved to Sebastopol in December 1973. The following year, we built a house on a half-acre on Jean Drive at the south end of the city limits. My father, Frank, and I did quite a bit of work on the house to make it more than the $25,000 that the Farmers Home Administration allowed. Our home was finished in late 1974.
My dad and mom came up to visit before Christmas 1974 to pick out a Christmas tree and to go look at Christmas lights. Our son Ian was two-and-a-half years old, and our daughter Anya was just one. We visited a shirttail relation, Tony and Peg Leone, on Robinson Road in town. Tony had built a homemade sleigh, reindeer and Santa display. We have photos of our kids sitting in the sleigh.
My dad went back to Tony’s the next week and took photos and measurements. He said he was going to make two copies out of plywood for their home and ours. We have sleigh photos from Christmas 1975 at my parents’ house in Terra Linda, and they kept that tradition going until my parents sold their house in 1997.
We put up our sleigh and reindeer on the roof of our hillside home on Jean Drive in 1975. It could be seen from Lynch Road nearby. A few storms over the years damaged the display, but I kept repairing it and putting it up every year. Betty and I were divorced in 1988, and we sold that house in 1992.
My second wife, Linda, and I married in 1989, and we live on Danmar Drive at the north end of Sebastopol. We put the sleigh, four reindeer and a cutout of Santa up on our carport roof next to the chimney. It has been there for the month of December for 33 years.
By 1997, when my parents moved to Santa Rosa, both original Christmas displays were in pretty sorry shape. Some reindeer had missing legs and antlers, and the years had faded the colors. Storms had blown mine off the roof a few times. After my parents moved from San Rafael to the Country Mobile Home Park, we combined the two Christmas displays with the best parts and kept the tradition going in Sebastopol.
My mom, Louise, died in 2000. My dad had cancer that took one of his eyes and a stroke that left him with only about 10 percent of his vision in the other eye. Even with that handicap, he said, “Let’s make three new copies of the display!”—one for us, one for my daughter Anya’s Sebastopol home, and one for our family friends, Steve and Leah in Santa Rosa.
Steve and I set out to build the displays, and my dad agreed to paint all the pieces. It took almost a year to complete. At one time, my dad had 48 reindeer legs, 12 reindeer bodies, 12 reindeer antlers, three sleighs and three Santa Claus cut-outs hanging in his small carport in the mobile home park. His neighbors were amazed he could still paint, despite being functionally blind.
That Christmas, in 2003, the displays were completed and installed at all of our homes. For a few years, we had a progressive dinner at each of our houses so we could get photos together in front of our displays. A year later, our daughter Chandra’s boyfriend, Phil, built another copy of the display for their Florence Avenue home.
Over the past 19 years, there was a theft of a reindeer from Steve and Leah’s display and a theft of the sleigh from Chandra’s front yard. When Chandra and Phil broke up, he took off with the reindeer and Santa Claus, never to be seen again. Anya divorced a few years later and the sleigh was left in storage, though she did put up some of the reindeer. Steve fashioned a replacement reindeer out of extra reindeer body parts I had. Steve and Leah still put up their display every year.
We have not missed a year here on Danmar Drive next to the Sebastopol Community Church. The reindeer were blown off the roof twice during storms, all of the antlers have broken except one, and my reindeer have a few broken legs. However, under the cover of dark December nights, my display still looks as good as new, though it is in sorry shape if you look close.
My son Eli and family moved to Sebastopol in January 2022. They are big on Christmas and holiday displays. This year they have some of the reindeer in their display on Cleveland Avenue here in Sebastopol.
My daughter Anya and her son also moved back to town a few years ago. This year, they have a skeleton Santa sitting in her Sleigh along with a cutout likeness of her dog, Domino, with a Santa hat on.
Last year, we sent out photos of our sleigh to extended family. Many of them want a retro plywood Santa, sleigh and reindeer for their homes. They are tired of blow-up Christmas displays. I have this feeling a new generation of the Christmas sleigh tradition may be in the offing, and reindeer body parts may be drying in my carport in the coming years. Maybe a high-tech sleigh version that would better fit the new century! I wonder what AI would recommend?
Love this story! I happen to have grown up in the house directly across the street from Peg and Tony Leone from the age of 4 1/2. My sister, a calligrapher, painted their name and number on the mailbox that still stands outside the house. I remember how exciting it was when their Christmas decorations went up every year. It meant Santa was coming really soon!! Thanks for the memories.
I say we put this up for a Pulitzer Prize, it deserve’s it! My favorite line, “When Chandra and Phil broke up, he took off with the reindeer and Santa Claus, never to be seen again”