Pssst . . . I have a secret to share with you.  Santa is not living at the North Pole. He’s living right here on the river bend in Conklin with two Siberian Huskies named Mica and Mya. At least I think Santa lives there. After all, if there are over 1,800 Santas in one house, you would think one of them must be the real deal!  Especially if the flood of 2006 didn’t get to touch a hair on even one little paper, plastic, ceramic, rubber or glass head?  Certainly the real Santa Claus was looking out for them, even if he wasn’t as kind to homeowners Bill and Karen Krasowsky.

The Krasowskys moved to Conklin to enjoy their retirement.  They moved here from Millerton, a lovely town on the New York/Connecticut border. Bill and Karen are both experienced in working with children with developmental disabilities. In fact, it was a fellow named Georgie, who liked to pilfer everyone’s coffee, who brought the two together.  Karen was Georgie’s caregiver and Bill was working for New York State’s Office of Mental Retardation & Developmental Disabilities.  Karen eventually left her NYS job to do home healthcare. Bill remained with New York state, ending his 34-year career with a five-year stint at Parker Training Academy in Red Hook, where staff from the Office of Children and Family Services in the juvenile justice, child welfare and corrections go for training. The Academy is also a residential facility. Bill loved his job, but the words of two different friends made both Bill and Karen start thinking about enjoying life a little more.

As a young boy, Bill spent his summers in the Adirondacks. The couple was out for a drive one weekend when Bill saw a sign for a town he remembered from his boyhood. The two detoured from their original destination, found a seasonal cottage rental business and fell in love with the place and the people. For the next 15 years they spent entire summers there (and sometimes longer).

When they started their own business, Millerton Card & Coin, they found they were too married to the store to take summer vacations. Still, they stayed in touch with the resort owners but after one of the owners died, correspondence was more likely to be the occasional Christmas card.  The Krasowskys had always thought they would buy the place and retire there when the owners were ready to sell.  But Lady Providence was not eager for the Krasowskys to retire.  When they finally decided to look into buying the place one fine July, they took a trip up to visit, and found the little summer resort had burned to the ground just months before.  “It just wasn’t meant to be,” said Karen as they returned home.

Now they had to begin the search for another place to spent their retirement years—a task not as easy as they had thought!

“We always thought when we walked into the right house, it would hug you,” says Bill of their search over the next few years. “It just didn’t happen.”

But Bill and Karen were seriously looking now. They had lost a dear friend to cancer.  Before their friend died, he urged them to think seriously about retiring now—to enjoy life while they could. So, even though they had no intention of retiring for a few more years, they got down to business in their search. When a co-worker told them about the property and prices around the Broome County area where he lived, they looked at everything available—even a home that was situated next to a river instead of the lake they had envisioned.  They walked into the house adjacent to Moxie’s on Conklin Road, and not only did they feel hugged, the creaks and cracks of the 1896 home spoke to them.

“It had the original woodwork.  The floors were gorgeous and unique—it was flat out gorgeous, but we said, ‘Let’s wait,’” recalls Bill. 

In October the price of the house was reduced, the owner was excited about moving to Thailand and had to be there by January 2006 for a teaching position. They closed on the river bend home in January, intending to rent it out for a few years while they paid off the mortgage. Bill would stay with Parker Academy and they would continue to run the card and coin shop in Millerton.

But their friend’s advice was still weighing heavily on their hearts when another friend —who worked with them in the card and coin business—was in a horrific car accident. She survived, but nearly every bone in her body was broken.

“Toni’s accident changed our minds. We put our Millerton house on the market and started coming up on weekends,” said Bill.

Every time they made the trip, they would bring a carload of things to leave in their new home and started talking to contractors about renovations.  Before buying they had extensively studied records to be sure the home did not flood. They found actual recordings going back 114 years that showed the property had never been flooded. Still, they were living along the river. Despite the advice of the previous owner, they took out a small amount of flood insurance—basically enough to cover what they had paid for the house— when the owner was desperate to sell and they had gotten a great deal.

“We came up on weekends, bought new appliances, a bed, a dresser . . . and then the flood [of June 2006] came,” said Bill. And they lost the new purchases and most of the stuff they had carted to Conklin including about 100,000 baseball cards and everything in the barn.  They almost cry when they recount what happened to the perfectly beautiful barn floors. “They looked like pick-up sticks—did you ever play that game as a kid? That’s exactly what the floodwater did to the floor. It also ruined the house floors and completely washed away the foundation on the backside of their newly purchased dream home.

Fortunately, the Krasowskys are even-keeled.  Karen shrugs her shoulders and states like a sage, “Life is what happens when you make plans.” They look at each other and smile—a testimony to a happy marriage. They have weathered storms including carrying the mortgages on two homes—one they couldn’t sell, in a depressed housing market in the Millerton area, and another in Conklin they couldn’t even live in because it had been ravaged by flood waters.

Renovations were no longer on the wish list—renovating and rebuilding were crucial if the place was ever to be livable.  They finally sold their home in Millerton and moved into their rebuilt Conklin home in November 2007—with, oh yes!  You do remember what this story was supposed to be all about—the Santa Claus collection.

Bill, who admits to being a collector of just about everything, started collecting Santas long before he married Karen and they have been together for over 30 years. “I hoard everything,” Bill says proudly as Karen smiles and sweetly says, “We have a big house and a third floor.” 

Their collection was extensive when they moved here with about 1,700 Santas. But both the Krasowskys say the Santa collection exploded with their move to Conklin, the help of family and friends —and an introduction to Jimay’s Flea Market just a few miles south of their home. They hardly ever miss a weekend visit to this collector’s paradise. “In the last two years we have added 400 Santas,” admits Bill. Karen remembers that her sister sent them 32 Santas last year. 

Every year, right after Thanksgiving the Krasowskys clear all the shelves, tables and hutches, do a winter cleaning and then begin unpacking Santas—and having a delightful time rediscovering different items in their collection. Bill says he even has letters he wrote to Santa Claus as a kid. (If Santa is lives there, it would have been easy for him to return the letters personally, don’t you think?)

Every corner, shelf, nook and cranny in the Krasowsky home is packed with Santas.  The couple love flea markets and yard sales and say most of their collection has come from great deals at such bargain places. Walk into their kitchen and the Santas greet you from the top of cupboards and appliances, swinging on chandeliers, peaking around corners and a hutch with no room for even one more Santa plate or cup—well, OK, they can always find room for one more!  Even the refrigerator door boasts a few of the jolly old elf—including a precious Santa face that was handmade by their now grown-up son, Bill, when he was only four years old.

They have to think hard when asked about a favorite, but Bill settles on a unique antique Christmas ornament he found when he bought a box of old Christmas decorations from a woman who tried to get her children to take an interest in the old decorations, but didn’t succeed. She was happy to see the box go to someone who could find value in the treasures rejected by her children. Karen decides her favorite is an elegant St. Nicholas made by her daughter-in-law who enjoys working with ceramics.  When you see the hallways and rooms chocked full of the Santas, you will find it amazing that they were able to choose just one favorite.  Even the bathroom sports Santa Clauses. The colorful shower curtain adds to the holiday spirit with its cheerful red and white Santas and bright green background. Near the sink faucet, Santa sits in a little tub taking a bath. A push of the button has him singing away.  Inches away another Santa is also bathing. This Santa is motion activated and guaranteed to give a guest a good start as Santa’s jolly round belly jiggles up and down to Christmas music amidst tiny bubbles as he scrubs his own back—the idea of startling his guests, brings a mischievous smile to Bill’s face.

Now don’t you agree with me? When Santa could live here, where he is so cherished and enjoyed, surely he would not choose to be anywhere else—except when he is delivering bundles of joy on Christmas Eve.