Uncle Santa Ornaments Gaining Fame
Wolf Point’s very own Uncle Santa is now known at least a little bit in every state of the nation.
Ornaments or rocks featuring Uncle Santa, who is written about by local author Lisa Dunn, was located in each of the states between Memorial Day and Labor Day as part of an online challenge.
“Everyone loves to find an Uncle Santa rock or ornament,” Dunn said about the fun challenge. “They are all over the world! Even the pyramids in Egypt!”
Dunn, the author of nine Uncle Santa books, has been creating Uncle Santa rocks since 2021, but this is the first year of hiding the ornaments.
“I will send the rocks/ornaments to anyone who wants to hide them,” Dunn said of the group effort. “Some are family and friends. Some have been on my page awhile while others have found a rock and want to hide more, so I mail them of package of rocks/ornaments.”
She explained that the rocks have changed over time.
“When I started, I was coloring an image of Uncle Santa and gluing it on a tile and used something on top to seal the tile,” Dunn said. “That ended up not as durable as I had hoped. Now, I have the images printed for both the back and the front. I put them in resin, using different shapes and glitter to make them pretty.”
The back of rocks have a QR code to scan that takes you to the Uncle Santa Facebook page with instructions to take a picture and post.
With about a week left to the challenge’s Labor Day deadline, the four states that were still missing on the completion list included Louisiana, Arkansas, Michigan and Delaware.
“I had contacts in every state but Delaware so I searched Facebook for a Delaware rock group and made a post explaining what I was doing and asking if anyone would like to participate,” Dunn explained. “I mailed packages of rocks to all of them.” The rock in Delaware was hid on Labor Day weekend.
The ninth book in the Uncle Santa series is titled Mrs. Claus’s RaceCar. “Yes, I raced my 1965 red Mustang so I had the knowledge I needed about racing to write the book,” Dunn said.
The Wolf Point woman currently is working on book 10. One of the chapters will be aimed at older children, “The Disappearance of the Naughty and Nice List.”
“It is the introduction into the Uncle Santa series. It will tell us why the real Santa picked Mike to be an Uncle Santa,” Dunn said. “I am also working on a cookbook and activity books.”
Dunn said that Uncle Santa came into existence in 2019 when her husband, Mike, visited her daycare children. During the children’s nap time, Mike quietly put on Santa Claus attire and then came to greet the excited children.
She explained that because the “real Santa” couldn’t be at the daycare every day, the name Uncle Santa was invented. Uncle Santa usually shares hot chocolate twice at the daycare during the year, around Christmas time and in late June or early July.
