Topps Gives St. Nick a Hand
There is a surprisingly short — and mostly modern — history of Santa Claus trading cards, with highlights ranging from a 2007 special edition Santa-only full set to short-printed inserts in recent Topps Holiday boxes. And, if you’re lucky, you may even stumble upon…autographed versions. Yes, Virginia, Papa Noel has gone the Dianni Russini route and signed his own cards.
…Or has he?
Look a little closer, and you’ll see that the Santa signature in one set looks a little different than the one before it. And the one after it. And the one after that. Even the 2007 set seemed to have some inconsistencies in his signature.
The truth is this: Santa Claus hasn’t actually signed these cards. A Topps employee has.
We tracked down one of the employees who signed for Santa. In exchange for their confidentiality, we got the truth about these Santa Signatures.
How did you find out you would be tasked with signing as Santa?
“Santa”: When we introduced the auto cards back into the product a few years ago, someone asked me who would sign them. Having no better option, I replied, “Uh, I guess …ME!”
Did you study any Santa signatures before?
“Santa”: I looked at some in the past Topps sets but knew it would be impossible to replicate, so I started working on my own that was easily duplicated and legible.
How much practice did you do?
“Santa”: My work notebook just had “Santa Claus” scribbled multiple times, in different ways, for a few pages. If someone saw it without context, they would have thought I was either a complete madman — or a 13-year-old in love with Kris Kringle. Again, the goal was to find something that looked like a Santa auto and was clearly legible. Those who have seen my handwriting know the latter can be a challenge at times.
How did you decide which style of “S” to use?
“Santa”: I quickly landed on the Regular/Print “S” for legibility reasons. It was important to me to have big bold “S” and “C” in the auto.
Did you feel a lot of pressure to give a good signature for Santa?
“Santa”: A bit. I knew these would be posted and talked about on social media and collectors forums, so I wanted something that wasn’t going to be easy to ridicule.
How many series have you signed for Santa?
“Santa”: Just one… for now. But I have taken this signature to sign as Santa in annual letters to my kids.
Did you want the Santa signatures to be uniform, or were you encouraged to use your own personal style?
“Santa”: There have been derivations in Santa’s signature across the globe, house to house, and throughout time. The man has had MANY different signature styles.
Do you ever stumble upon one of yours and consider buying it?
“Santa”: I did early on and regret not purchasing. This reminds me to hop on Fanatics Collect.
One final question: why did you do this?
“Santa”: The big man has a lot going on this time of year. Signing Topps cards is not at the top of his to-do list. I’m lightening Santa’s load so he can focus on getting presents to kids all over the world.
That definitely puts you on the “Nice List.”
“Santa”: I hope so.
