holiday chorus of "Hello, Santa!" pierces the chilled

evening air as a small group of "good boys and girls"

stands anxiously awaiting a reply. Across the drive,

on the stately mansion's front lawn, a child-sized

country farmhouse sits in stark contrast, its tiny windows ablaze

with a warm and welcoming glow: From within, the sound of "Jingle

Bells" and a deep voice bellowing "Ho Ho Ho!" answers the chil-

dren's call. They scurry onto the front porch, faces flush with

Christmas wonderment and anticipation of the glories hidden

inside. As the miniature front door slowly swings open, an annual

tradition is reborn; Santa Claus has once again come to Fair Lane,

the historic home of Henry and Clara Ford.

For Fair Lane's executive chef, Peter Veach, this night affords a

momentary opportunity to step back to the days when the Fords

were in residence. Stationed in the kitchen of the grand mansion,

carefully following one of Clara Ford's own recipes, Chef Veach pre-

pares a steaming pot of "Snow Flake Soup" (more commonly known

as oyster stew). He then delivers it across the way to the Lilliputian-

like kitchen in the aforementioned scale farmhouse. Soon, Mrs.

Claus will serve portions to the joyful host of Santa's young visitors.

It is a treat to help warm them through, just as was done for those

who came before, more than seventy years ago.

he origins

charming holiday

event can be traced

back to a time well

before Henry Ford's

success with the

Model T enabled him to build his

secluded Dearborn estate. As early

as 1895, one would have found

Furd himself playing the rule uf

Santa for his two-year-old son Edsel

and the children of his west side

Detroit neighborhood. By the time

Edsel Ford was grown (1916), and the Fords were spend-

ing their first Christmases at Fair Lane, Henry Ford's sim-

ple neighburhuud Santa purtrayal had evolved into a sto-

rybook encounter, complete with a lug cabin workshop,

sleigh filled wilh lOys and live "bovine" reindeer.

The Ford's grand Fair Lane Estate was in parllhe result

of Henry and Clara's need for a place of solitude. Fair Lane

was removed from the rapidly expanding city and repeal,

ed intrusions from job seekers,

reporters and salesman who

continually appeared on

~ the stoop of their'~~, Edison Avenue resi-

J .~ denee in Detroit. In

40 I MICHIGAN HISTORY

..

Greenfield Village schoolchildren ride through the woods

to Santa's Workshop. There, a Santa played by a dwarfFord employee (below) descends the chimney by way of asecret built-In ladder.

1913, construction began employing an army of artisans

who, over a tWo-year period, transformed more than 1,300

acres of Dearborn farmland into a majestic, self.contained

enclave of privacy and natural beauty.

Since Henry and Clara's only son, Edsel, moved from

Fair Lane ten months after construction was complete, it

was their grandchildren (Henry II, Benson, Josephine and

William), nieces, nephews and in later years, the fortunate

students of Henry Ford's Greenfield Village Schools sys-

tem, who became the beneficiaries of all that Fair Lane had

to offer. For them, the estate was a wondrous playground

equipped wilh a host of elaborate playthings. There was

the miniature farmhouse, originally built for an agricultur.

al exhibit at the 1924 Michigan State Fair, an equally

diminutive barn, scaled.down farm equipment and a col-

lection of farm animals-everything from chickens to

ponies. For winter fun there was a skating house on a large

man-made lake, a maple sugar house and best of all, exclu-

sive visits with Santa Claus at his log cabin workshop.

In its own small way, Santa's Workshop perfectly reflect-

ed the unique personality traits and creative abilities that

brought Henry Ford to his standing as the world's most

famuus industrialist. His methods of operation, his mastery

( sterstew)v\aKeSo\\\1 oy . \\ II&.II~\(of~\il\(.

. .. A' C\10\V If'!.eu~s\I: .~of plannmg, hIs attention \ t1 'COrU S " I 'f€nrichness. C.fe'olf\\

C;lar", I' (neSl ~i\1\1\n'l,to detail and his so-called I n eun \'I,\\ole. I" r h~~e

paternalistic idealism were 0 'on (TUCdiuTU\ S s\eTUSftes \0 \~\e Wn &.diee\\)1(1. n' . '(ij\\'\e\'e~\1er , 'Ien,coOe

all evident in this enchanting " ne.c.e\er'j' \ (juediUTU,~eJr.. \'Iu\\ef I \'O\~\o

Christmas experience, an \'/\\s\,e\(.. \ Uf Sail\0 \~\e1(207..fo . I ne\ .

event that provided lifelong I" \1'(ij\\i\e'Li"\I:U ,il\eoder.If'!.eu . s\oe\(. (\' odceler'l00 \-it

memories to a small and fonu. ~ eU\15c.1~TU. . ,rs (shue"e " dicedO\\io\\5\I: . . ",iJd\\%" Ie. . e~ns O),,>\e er \\:OM~o\e d \0,\le'o.\)o,e,nate group of children. ').. I>ot. 0 ",el\110\\ ~I~er. MI

. ",su.es~oc~ ' .\omi\\O'cs. . r\l~I~\IIh dsi\\\me'So encompassing was the \. 1\\~",e<\io . roo"-Ic1<9"1<S . i del \\:Odmill< 0 I<\0. simmer \\:0

0' \010rTO~ \<,,,~,i\C.t\\\\\:0 1100%~<Santa's Workshop encounter that ~.~ddno . \\lec\~\\\i~\OC d",\lile\,e\,QC"

\\,,\lile,0'" _ . rs t\I~",e\\:0many of the youngest attendees ). ~I~. . \\leS\OC\(. ., ~dd\\leO)s'e , 1SO"ei\\

::\du\1\t! . '.. \ ::\ S\(\\t\1e 1 $a\\ 'as"eLv..-actually believed they had journeyed ,. ~1w"IIIea\JO'e'" _ d 00\d()\\'\\i" "'1.,e'., .~i"~,,d ~dd

'\. (\1\\\\\\es. . ~:1\O'AfI( . \0'1s\tnroer.to the "real" North Pole. The exciting \j .~o 001<\ ;"odiom9" . no,e \\:Od11,,1\~

d' e-~od<. '0 \\le\I:trip began at the back gate of the ford j. \'CCI,IC . <I,,\li\,~i"%cr~m%ollres\l\\I~,,,e.

~<ld9"\\1:\0~o \is\l",illls\'"compound where horse.drawn bob- 6. \10'"0' <II\,.t,~"

sleds departed down a snow.covered, 'i,eld:y,..{,oi:'ol"

lantern.lit lane to a spot set deep in Fair

Lane's rambling woods. There, draped in

all its winter glory and appearing as if it had existed for an Along with new toys and hot stew, children also

eternity, was Santa's rough-hewn log cabin workshop. Atop

its rustic roof was perched Santa Claus. After tossing fistfuls

of candy to the visitors below, Santa magically di~appeared

from the rooftop and suddenly re-..ppeared, spanning the

cabin's doorway (a trick accomplished with the use of a

secret ladder built into the little building's chimney).

Santa then dramatically revealed what

must have been an overwhelming site to

such little ones. Festooned across the

cabin's walls, reflecting the ,,,,..rm glow of

its tiny stone fltCplace, was an array of shin-

ing new toys. With Santa's help, eager chil.

dren chose their gifts. Hot bowls of Clara's

homemade Snow flalce Soup (oyster stew),

a favorite winter dish from her and Henry's

courting days, provided warmth for the

journey back home.

Santa Claus (portrayed by Walter

"Shorty" Garrison) poses with workshopvisitors.

--

received lessons in Ford morality. Santa never gave out any

toy of a "war" natUre; Henry Ford's pacifist views would

not allow for such things. Parents learned al~o. After Clara

Ford noticed a few children being pushed to choose from

the most expensive gifts, Moms and Dads found them-

selves banned from the North Pole.

In the role of Santa Claus, Henry Ford would cast, each

year, an enthusiastic dwarf Ford employee whose appear-

ance was suggestive of the Harper's illustrations created by

famed nineteenth-century artist Thomas Nast,

"Little Harry," as one visitor lovingly remembered him,

was "a Santa like any child would expect." Vintage films

shot hy the Ford Motor Company's Motion Picture

Department show the diminutive Ford staff member ram-

bling through the deep snow, loading his sleigh with toys

and feeding his reindeer. Those who looked too closely

may have noticed that in reality, the "reindeer" were

indeed calves, sporting deerskin coals and sprouting

strapped-on antlers. After 1943, Santa was portrayed by

Walter "Shorty" ('..arrison, a longtime superintendent of

Ford's Greenfield Village.

Henry Ford passed away on April 27, 1947. Soon afler, the

ideals behind Santa's Workshop began to give way to more

realistic worldly concerns. Clard Ford carried on the annual

visits, hut it was not the same. As she noted in a leller,

"Santa's Workshop is held this year again, hut we miss him."

After Clara's passing, l'air Lane transferred into the

hands of the University of Michigan, a gifl from the Ford

Motor Company for the University's new Dearhorn

42 IMICIlIGAN IIISTORY

Santa Claus is hard at work

in his Fair Lane workshoparound 1935.

campus. In 1953, Henry Ford's

grandson, Henry Ford 11,brought

a more modern, commercialued

incarnation of Santa's Workshop

to the Ford Rotunda Christmas

Fantasy Show, an event that

attracted hundreds of thousands

of visitors each year. Before long,

Santa's abandoned log cabin dis-

appeared forever from Fair L~ne's

fairy-tale, woodland setting.

Today; however, through the

enthusiastic efforts of Fair Lane

staff members like Peler Veach, the workshop tradition is

again alive at the Ford estate. The same joyful expressions

viewed in old phowgraphs are seen on the faces of Fair

Lane's contemporary young visitors. Children now arrive

at the estate's massive hydroelectric powerhouse where

they create Christmas crafts and sing carols. They Ihen

parade down a candlelit walkway past Clara Ford's

English rose garden and on 10 Ihe beautifully preserved,

circa-1924 scale farmhouse, which substitutes for Santa's

long-lost log cabin. As some children peer through the

windows, inside others tell Santa Iheir most desired wish.

Afterwards, they ail make themselves right at home, seat-

ed at Mrs. Claus' kitchen table where they enjoy Chef

Veach's warming Snow Flake Soup. Parents, who are no

longer banned from attending, seem just as intense as

their little ones, as all are enthralled by this magical

Christmas event; a wonderful reminder of Fair Lane's

glorious past. mh

DANIEL BROOKS, an avid Fardaphile, is currently a vice

president af the Henry Fard Heritage Assaciatian-a graup

whose mission it is to foster interest in the life and accomplish-

ment of Henry Ford and to preserve and interpret the land.marks associated with his life.