No one’s got Christmas spirit like Carol Trawick.
Over the past 40 years, the Bethesda philanthropist and former information-technology business owner has collected nearly 1,000 Santa Claus dolls and figurines.
The majority of the collection is gathered in the library of her Bethesda home, but it spills out to the rest of the house. A life-size clay Santa sculpted by Sharpsburg, Maryland, artist Terry Stone lords over the living room.
“It was quite accidental,” said Trawick, dressed for the season in a sequin Santa hat, green sweater and an enamel Santa brooch.
“Santa captures the American spirit of sharing and caring,” she said. “Everybody’s got Santa Claus in their hearts.”
It’s no wonder Trawick identifies with the Santa Claus mythos — her foundation, the Carol and Jim Trawick Foundation, has been a life force to local arts nonprofits and health and human service organizations since its founding in 2006, according to published accounts.
One of the foundation’s more significant gifts, a $2.5-million gift to Imagination Stage in 2009, allowed the children’s theater to retire their debt and purchase their Auburn Avenue building. The following year, Carol Trawick was named Philanthropist of the Year by the Community Foundation of Montgomery County.
Each year after Thanksgiving, Trawick unpacks and positions every Santa Claus. It takes her about 25 hours.
Trawick wouldn’t divulge her age. “I’m old enough to know better,” she said.
Trawick, who grew up in Union City, New Jersey, and moved to Bethesda when she married Jim Trawick, approaches her hobby with gusto. “Life is work, even this is work, but if you’re enjoying what you’re doing, that’s the best you can do,” she said.
The collection began slowly. “Over the years I collected one or two,” Trawick said. But when she started going to yard sales and flea markets, and saw all the discarded Santa dolls and figurines, she couldn’t help but bring them home.
“I was trying to save all the Santas,” Trawick said. “There’s nothing like seeing a Santa in the middle of the summer like, ‘Nobody wants me.’ ”
Trawick was in college when she received her first Santa, given to her by her mother. She still has the tiny doll, the size of a pinky finger with an acorn for a head. “I never stopped believing in Santa,” Trawick said.
“When people didn’t have money they made things,” Trawick said. The DIY-style Santa is in good company in the library: Santas made with pinecones and cotton bedding, handcrafted in the early 20th century, dot the display. “This collection reflects our history, trade and culture over the years,” Trawick said.
Trawick has never had her collection appraised, but she’s used price guides to estimate the value of some of her dolls and figurines. The cotton bedding Santas made between the 1890s and 1920s are worth $30 or $40, Trawick said. They would have cost just a nickel or dime back then.
Billye Harris, a doll appraiser and PBS Antiques Roadshow regular, said in an email Santa Claus collections are common, but not ones this large.
“This is a fabulous and fun collection,” Harris wrote.
The dolls are grouped by theme: mechanical ones crowd a curio cabinet by the window, yard sale and flea market acquisitions line a book shelf, and pre-World War II Santas huddle on the floor. Breakables are sequestered to the kitchen. Only one is off limits: a chalkware Santa dangerously close to the kitchen sink. He wears a “Do Not Touch” sign to warn that the delicate plaster used to sculpt figurines from the 18th to early 20th century is water soluble.
Trawick and her husband hosted their family’s Christmas party at their house for 30 years until Jim Trawick’s passing in 2008. The Christmas party has moved to The Mansion at Strathmore; Trawick was once chairwoman of the Music Center. But there are still plenty of visits to the house during the season.
“My family looks forward to this particular season because of the collection,” she said. Trawick’s grandchildren are especially fond of the Santas. “The girls are always ‘Ooing’ and ‘Aahing.’ The boys adore the mechanicals.”
Trawick said she is no longer actively collecting, unless she finds something truly exceptional.
“I try to limit myself,” she said. “I only want something that’s really old, or that I don’t already have in my collection.” But she still receives Santas as gifts from friends and loved ones. “I don’t encourage it, but if someone gives something that’s close to their heart, of course I’ll accept it.”
Trawick will promptly pack away the Santa Clauses at the end of January. She doesn’t like clutter. “The taking out is the fun,” she said. “I have to make myself put things away.” Come spring, Trawick’s bunny collection, not nearly as extensive as her Santa collection, will be on display.
“Thank God the bunnies didn’t multiply,” Trawick said.
Leigh McDonald can be reached at leigh.mcdonald@moco360.media
