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Auckland's Santa Claus

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A grungy, washed-out digital art treatment of Auckland's Farmers Santa statue
Grungy Auckland Santa
© John Corney

An icon of the Auckland Christmas holiday season is the "Farmers' Santa Claus". First hoisted on the side of the Farmers department store on Auckland's Hobson Street in 1960, he later moved to the Whitcoulls building at the corner of Queen and Victoria Streets, a much more favourable spot given the thousands of daily admirers on foot along Queen Street. It also gave Santa a better view of who was being naughty or nice.

My first encounter with the Farmers' Santa Claus was on a visit to "The Farmers" with my grandfather when I was 14 years old. Although I had stopped believing in Father Christmas just a few years before, I was so enthralled by his winking eye and beckoning finger that I marched into the store, sat on Santa's knee, collected a balloon, and proceeded to spend all my Christmas money at the Farmers!

Since a facelift before his Christmas 2009 outing, his wink and beckon were stilled. No reason was given, but could it be that keeping a well-oiled wink and beckon is bound to see Santa back on the cosmetic surgeon's table all too soon? His eye used to wink seven times a minute — 6,720 times a day — and his finger would beckon 27 times a minute, or 25,920 times a day. The real reason, we all know, is that Santa needs to reserve his energy for all those deliveries to be made on Christmas Eve to children the world over.

Whatever the reason, my tribute to Auckland's Farmers' Santa above is to give him a grungy treatment along with slightly washed-out colouring — a fitting match to my jaded memories of him from all those years ago.

Actually, I still do believe in Father Christmas!

For a look at the statue itself in its later years, and a couple of newer pieces built around it that available in my Redbubble store as tee-shirts and greeting cards, see my post on the Farmers Santa — Queen Street Auckland Christmas Landmark.

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