Poway’s ‘Santa House’ hosts visitors for last time

If you’ve never visited the Santa House in Poway, you have a few more nights before one of the best-known community secrets closes for the final time on Dec. 23.

John and Kathy Huish, now 81 and 72 respectively, said they have decided that due to their ages and the months of decorating work involved, this 16th year will be the last that they will welcome the community for free to see their extensively decorated home.

The Santa House is in north Poway, with a sign on Espola Road directing visitors to where they can meet Santa and Mrs. Claus. To keep crowds manageable, they never publicize the Santa House and have requested that media outlets — including this one — not publish their address.

It is viewable between 6 and 8 p.m. each night, except Sunday, through Dec. 23.

It started out as a small event in 2000, the year John turned 65. Kathy said they bought a lot of tables, chairs and other items for a big party to celebrate his birthday. After the party, the couple decided they wanted to do something to repay the community for supporting the business John owned and developed — Family Fun Center. At several locations throughout San Diego County, the center offered miniature golf, arcade games, rides and other amusements to those of all ages. Many locations were later leased to Boomers. John also developed amusement facilities in Washington, Utah and Nevada.

So before Christmas 2000 they put out a sign in their neighborhood saying Santa and Mrs. Claus would be meeting with children for two hours each night from Dec. 10 to 23 (Sundays excluded). They put some chairs in their gazebo for the North Pole couple and over the 12 days about 2,000 people showed up, she said.

So the next year they decided to decorate the playhouses in their backyard — relics from their former Family Fun Center in La Mesa that had to close to make way for a freeway. The playhouses — used by the children in their family — were once among the miniature golf course’s obstacles. More people came after learning about the offering via word-of-mouth.

By the third year, Kathy said they realized it was a bit awkward for the growing crowd to walk back and forth from the front and backyards and bought more decorations so one of the paths could go through their house. By year four, the “Santa Room” came into existence, they were offering free refreshments and they built a 36-foot tower that is installed each year by crane.

“(Santa House) just became more than we expected and grew,” Kathy said. “People found out in the community and came from all over.” Their visitors have been from throughout the region, numerous states and several countries.

To have several rooms of their home decorated with everything from tiny miniatures to a life-sized elephant, they rent a unit where their furniture is stored from roughly September to February in order to make way for their Christmas décor.

The couple estimates that for the past seven or eight years, around 15,000 people come by annually, at least 1,000 per day during the first week it operates and up to 2,500 per day once schools go on their holiday break. Movies are shown to entertain those waiting an hour or more in line. Around 15 friends and members of their church help each night. Adults are volunteers, but high schoolers are paid, John said.

Each year the couple spends roughly $3,000 to $10,000 to put on the event. This includes decorations, candy canes given to each child by Santa and a small toy each child gets to select. John said they bought thousands of toys for this year’s event.

Until two years ago they also provided free hot chocolate, hot apple cider and cookies, but the logistics of continuing that tradition became too much. John said it required six generators to serve 6,800 cups of hot cider, 7,500 packets of cocoa and they bought 2,200 dozen cookies, which is 26,400 cookies. To get that many they would almost buy out the cookie aisle in Walmart, then a few days later return for more, Kathy said.

After the 2007 wildfires, they decided to accept free-will donations to help a selected cause, she said. The Rancho Bernardo and Poway fire stations received the money collected during the first two years. Other recipients have been Make-a-Wish, Give Kids the World, a Down syndrome clinic at Rady Children’s Hospital and a woman who needed a lift for her car because of her child. This year’s beneficiary will be a disabled man who makes wooden toys for children and whose home and workshop burned down this year.

They receive $3,000 to $5,000 in donations each year and Kathy said collectively they have raised about $25,000 to $30,000 for charitable causes.

More money is raised for Make-A-Wish by having children write letters to Santa. The letters are whisked up to one of his elves near a second-story window via a pulley. They deliver the letters by taking them by the bag-full to Macy’s stores since Macy’s donates $1 per letter received to Make-A-Wish.

John and Kathy said they have made numerous special memories over the years. She said some of the most touching are children whom they can tell don’t have much; a severely disabled 4-year-old boy who was not expected to live, but is now an adult who still makes an annual visit; and a boy whose dying wish was to visit the Santa House. He came two days before Christmas and died shortly after the New Year. There are also the children who come in wheelchairs, she said, and the youngsters — even up to age 10 or 12 — who are “starry-eyed” and light up in anticipation because they really believe they are visiting Santa’s house.

“There are a lot of things, just special tender things, that come out of seeing people so happy,” Kathy said. “I will miss the little children because for them, it’s magical.”

“It’s hard to stop,” John said. “Now or five years from now it will still be hard. But at our ages, it’s time.”

“If it remained a small undertaking, we could continue forever,” Kathy said, adding that maybe just one room where some decorations will be displayed could be available so children can continue to visit Santa.

As for what they are going to do with the thousands of decorations, all the large outdoor items in the front yard will be going to a Christmas tree farm in Escondido, which wants to put on a display. Kathy said she plans on spending several months next year sorting through the indoor decorations, keeping some, donating others and perhaps selling the rest, with the proceeds going to charity.

“It’s been wonderful,” Kathy said to summarize the past 16 years.

“We enjoyed it,” John added.