🎅🎄ðŸŽÂ A Holiday Party for All Ages! ðŸŽðŸŽ„🎅
Join us [Friday, December 16th from 5 to 9 PM](http://cityreliquary.org/santa2016) to celebrate the holiday season in true City Reliquary style! The evening will include ***a special visit from Santa Claus at 6 PM***. We’ll serve cookies & milk for kids, and coffee & “yuletide cheer†for adults! Holiday tunes set the festive mood while children visit with Santa. We’ll provide materials for making wish lists.
[Tickets on sale now through Artfully!](https://www.artful.ly/store/events/10813) $8 general/$5 Reliquary members. All children admitted free of charge.[ Become a member today!](http://cityreliquary.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=1d314f6c7241bcaf87d0d872a&id=5007ec4c99&e=b929d6d09a)
This year we’ve decked the halls with the Christmas kitsch collection of John and Rowena Doyel. John always had a taste for the offbeat--he was a painter who hung out with artists Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock in the 50s. When Rowena discovered that their property once belonged to Clement Clarke Moore, famous for *A Visit From St. Nicholas* (better known as *‘Twas the Night Before Christmas*), John found a new outlet for his interest in unusual things.
The Doyels developed a massive collection of wind-up, battery-operated, and spring-loaded Santas dating from the 1920s to the 1960s. Each year, John activated these figures in “The Santa Show,†a performance for friends and neighbors that created a sensory overload of flashing lights, electronic music, and animated figures. [The New York Times detailed John's collection and life story in a piece from 2009.](http://nyti.ms/2gFO9nu)
One of John’s “Santa Show†performances was captured in a home video by his son-in-law, Nick Fritsch, in 1985. The City Reliquary display includes a looped screening of this short film.
We’re very excited that John Doyel’s daughter, Lesley, will join our holiday party! Lesley will recreate the riotous energy of The Santa Show in a live demonstration incorporating many of the Santas on display! Check out the video below for a teaser of what's to come. We hope you'll join us!
