Karen Didion Originals Old World Santa Figurine, 21 Inches - Handmade Christmas Holiday Home Decorations and Collectibles

This is a beautiful Santa, but unfortunately I am sending it back. Therefore I will start with the cons, which are probably all related to shipping (and price).My Santa arrived in a large cardboard box. Inside was a smaller brown cardboard box, that says "Karen Didion Originals" on the side. The top had a large shipping sticker, a UPS sticker from Premium Brands to Amazon. When I lifted this box out of my shipping carton, packing peanuts immediately spilled over my floor - the bottom of the box was gouged, and the tape was loose, so the peanuts were falling out of the box. On the one hand not a big deal, but the listing states "Condition - Brand new in original gift box". So I guess I was expecting a nice box to keep my Santa in, not a brown shipping box that has a gouge in the bottom and needs to be retaped. A Santa needs to be put away and stored every year, so a nice box would have been nice. Another small odd thing is that the packing peanuts were a combination of starch pellets and styrofoam pellets, all mixed together. Kind of hard to deal with, since each type has a different disposal method. The Santa was wrapped in plastic bags, and surrounded by the packing peanuts.But the real deal breaker was the inadequate glue. When I first removed the Santa from the bag, I noticed that the drum in his toy bag had a marred finish on the top. Quickly I realized that the drum wasn't marred - it was glue. Glue from the stacked blocks that were supposed to sit on top of the drum, but were instead loose in the bag. I continued to check out the Santa, and was impressed with his beauty, and the rich fabrics used for his outfit. I placed him by the fireplace, and went to clean up the packing peanut mess. While scooping up the peanuts, I found two dark, button-like medallions. They looked like they should be on the Santa, not in the packaging! After examining the picture, I realized that these pieces were supposed to be the buckles on Santa's boots, but had fallen off.Now onto the Santa himself. He is really quite beautiful. His beautiful blue eyes look out through rimless, half moon spectacles. His cheeks are rosy, and his lips pale pink. He has a very soft off-white beard with matching mustache and eyebrows. The mustache is tied with matching thread in the middle, and then moves down under his cheeks. The beard has a soft wave to it.His suit is bright red velveteen, slightly stiff but not plasticy. The hat and robe are trimmed with 1 1/2 inch faux fur. The fur is off white, slightly more gray/yellow than the beard, and has a bit of a shimmer to it. The hat also has a partial halo of greens and berries centered on the fur trim, and a dark jingle bell at the pointed end. The greens feel papery, and are a mix of leaves and needles. The berries are red plastic. The robe is longer in the back, and "puddles" on the ground. There is a green fabric Karen Didion label stitched on the back, about 1/2 inch above the fur trim. I had a little trouble arranging the back of the robe. The fur trim has a wire inside the outside edge, and needs to be re-shaped after being tied up in the bag. The velveteen is rather stiff, so was hard for me to arrange so that it looked good. Also, one side was wrinkled and rumpled after storage. Not sure how to smooth it, and since I'm sending it back I'm not going to try.Peeking out from the fur trimmed sleeves are dark gold gathered satin cuffs. The satin is soft and shiny, and the cuffs are about 1 1/2 inches deep. Santa is sporting a "pleather" black belt around his waist. The belt is 1 1/4 inches wide, and the edges are turned under and stitched. The large (3 inch) buckle is dull silver scrolled resin or plastic. It features 16 crystals, and a shiny brown scrolled button center. I have looked closely, and don't think it is a monogram, just scrolls (but I really wanted an SC!). Attached to the side front of the belt are two old fashioned keys, made of metal. Santa's pants are kind of like knickers. They are a soft striped taffeta. Duller red with gold stripes, and the gold stripes have diamond outlines running down them. The knickers are gathered above Santa's boots. The heavy black boots are made from resin (I think), and are very detailed. They have stitching around the soles, the side seams and the decorative vamp. They should have little medallions on them, but mine fell off. The medallions are oval, with gold filagree around the edge, and a round scrolled button center. The center matches the button center of the belt buckle.Santa is holding his naughty and nice list. The list of names is printed on an ivory ribbon that has wired edges with gold braid trim. The top and bottom of the scroll is wrapped around a gold painted rod with round knobs. It is attached to his hand, and to the robe about 2/3s the way down.Last is the toy sack. The sack is made from a beautiful fabric that has a sueded feel. It is brown, and kind of looks like old leather, with a textural print mixing matte chocolate brown with glossy dark brown. The two sides are stitched together with ruching, and the bag has a corded band around the opening. The band has 8 gold jingle bells stitched underneath it. The front side seam of the bag has a decorative metal bar stitched on. There is a long strap that goes around Santa's neck. The strap is under the belt on the front of Santa, and over the belt on the back. Then there are the toys. A resin matte gold horn is threaded through the strap, and hangs on the edge of the bag. Inside are a green and red nutcracker (with faux fur hair and beard, along with detailed painting); a resin top, painted red, black and silver; an old fashioned resin doll, with blond hair and an ivory dress; a brown resin rocking horse with red and green bridle and saddle; and a gold plastic drum, with silver cord trim. Glued (or not!) on top of the drum should be three ABC building block, stacked into a pyramid. The blocks are edged with red, yellow and blue.This is truly a beautiful Santa, and I have struggled with my decision to return him. I could re-glue him myself, but wonder how secure the rest of the Santa is, and if eventually I will have to re-glue a lot more. Buying this Santa was a splurge, and for this price, I expected to be 100% delighted. I'm not.Bottom Line - beautiful details, but poor gluing and lame "gift box" make it hard to justify the price.

gave as a present, they love it