The foyer of Margo Scurry’s home in northeast Charlotte is a portal into a kid’s Christmas dream. Four-foot-tall nutcrackers stand at the entrance to the living room, just the right height to look a child straight in the eye. A glowing tree twinkles nearby. And the entire room, anchored by a two-story brick wall, is festooned with hundreds of Santas — caroling, golfing, riding scooters. She even has a huggable, life-size Santa. The one thing these Kris Kringles have in common: They’re all African American.

Scurry arrives at the door all sparkling eyes and bubbly laughter. A passionate collector of Christmas knickknacks, she could almost be Mrs. Claus. She began collecting Black ephemera — items like porcelain dolls and angels — back in 1993, after the birth of her second daughter. When she saw that a coworker had painted a white Santa figure brown, Scurry turned her attention to searching for Santas at gift shops, holiday-themed stores, and flea markets.

Margo Scurry began collecting African American figurines so that her children could see themselves in Christmas stories. photograph by Jerry Wolford & Scott Muthersbaugh

Her first find, an old plug-in figurine holding a candle, still moves, and the candle still lights up. She values it for sentimental reasons. She recalls a white member of her church who, upon seeing the statue, jokingly said to her, “Santa ain’t Black!”

“I said, ‘Yes he is — in my house,’” Scurry says with a laugh. “And then his wife gave me my second ones as a gift.” She reaches for a pair of small items: “These little magnets.” Scurry smiles. “Every year that she could find one, she would get it for me.”

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Thus began Scurry’s Christmas collection, which grew slowly at first, and then faster as word of her obsession spread. She estimates that she now has more than 300 items — so many that, in 2010, she formed “The Black Santa Collectors Finds & Shares” Facebook group for her and others to show off their special treasures. The community grew quickly, and its network of groups now boasts more than 30,000 collectors.

“People just like being able to share their finds with like-minded folk,” Scurry says. “To have a place outside their homes for their sets to be appreciated.”

Her own assortment ranges from one-of-a-kind handmade pieces to inexpensive, mass-produced items. She has bobbleheads, freestanding figurines, tree-toppers, decorative plates, cookie jars, and plush dolls, as well as designer collectibles from the Possible Dreams and Kurt Adler lines, which can cost $100 or more per ornament.

“They aren’t all pricey,” Scurry insists. “I just like them to be unique.” In addition to Santas, she also collects elves, angels, nutcrackers, and Mrs. Claus pieces.

Scurry’s Christmas collection includes Santas, snow globes, angels, and more. photograph by Jerry Wolford & Scott Muthersbaugh

When Scurry started her collection, brown Santas had not yet gained a foothold in the mainstream imagination. But African American folk artists had been creating Santas in their own image for decades. Many were passed down as family heirlooms, and some had become orphaned until collectors like Scurry found them and gave them new homes.

“I think there was a lot of demand,” she says, “but until people knew there were other [Santas] like them and knew where to go get them, the full strength of the phenomenon couldn’t be seen.”

As a kid, Scurry didn’t see Black Santas in her home or in the homes of other families she knew. When she reflects on her own childhood holidays, her mind goes back to bowls of starlight mints, butterscotch candies, and oranges — the very items that now sit on her living room and dining room tables, a callback to bygone days. She decided that her children — Danielle, Brittney, Tony, and Dipalesa — should have those memories, too. But she supplemented the candy bowls with Black Santas so they could see themselves among the decorative traditions. “Representation matters,” she says.

Last year, some of the figurines in Scurry’s collection came to life when she published the book Santa’s Sistah Saves Christmas, a children’s story written by her late husband. photograph by Margo Scurry; Background by Julia Manga/iStock/Getty Images Plus

After her collectors group started, Scurry began dressing up as Mrs. Claus and hosting open houses for neighbors and fellow church members. She and her daughters, who dressed as elves, would serve cocoa and gingerbread while the visitors admired her holiday collection. Scurry’s late husband, William, pitched in, too, taking down the decorations at the end of the season. When he died unexpectedly in 2017, Scurry decided to leave everything up year-round. William left behind a story that he’d written for the kids, Santa’s Sistah Saves Christmas. The moral was based on a favorite saying of his: “Every God-ordained dream must be about others.”

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Margo Scurry’s dream is to share holiday joy. Upon William’s death, she found an illustrator, and, last year, she published his story as a book. “I couldn’t let his work just be forgotten,” she says with a furrowed brow. Now, what he left behind will live on, year-round, forever — just like her collection of vintage Christmas collectibles.

Scurry hopes to one day start a museum, where her collection and William’s story can be enjoyed by many others. To her, it’s all the stuff of legacy — a portal into holidays past, stories with morals, little pieces of a culture that can be held in one hand and cherished by all.