Blacker's huge Father Christmas has arrived at the Museum of Liverpool. Giant Santa, who towered over shoppers in Blackler's department store each winter from 1957 until 1988. He first went on display in the Museum in 2016 and has returned for the festive season almost every year since.
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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 This special Father Christmas was originally made in 1957 by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.