STANDING PROUD … One can’t tell who is prouder, the little house that has been packed away for so long, or the two men who brought it back out into the open after 35 years of sitting in storage. Seen here on the left is Bruce Short who owns and runs Shorts Trees and Wreaths where the little house now sits, with Rick Wityk who helped construct it so many years ago in 1965 with the Bryan High School Industrial Arts class. (PHOTOS BY REBECCA MILLER, STAFF)
By: Rebecca Miller
Fifty-five years ago at Bryan High School, a group of ambitious young students, in Industrial Arts Class, built a delightful little collapsible house for kids to visit Santa during Christmas. That year, 1965, the little house with the bright red roof sections, was set up on the courthouse lawn in Bryan amidst all the other decorations on the square, and for the next twenty years Santa held audience with delighted little munckins over the Christmas Seasons.
For some reason, it was replaced around 1985… and then again, the second one was replaced around 2005, continuing to give Santa a place to greet the kids and hear their Christmas wishes. Rick Wityk, who was in that Industrial Arts class in 1965, and was very proud of their little “Santa’s House,” says he doesn’t know why it was replaced. It is still in great condition after being in storage for the past 35 years.
How it came to be in use again in this year, 2020, a Christmas season when joy is in desperate demand, is quite a story. Wityk shared in an interview that one day back around 2010 he was having coffee with “the old timers” in Bryan and asked if anyone knew whatever happened to the little house that his class had built.
Much to his surprise one of the men who used to work for the Bryan Street Department piped up immediately, saying that it was stored in somebody’s shed. Joyfully, Wityk “called the guy and went to pick it up out of his shed.” It was all dismantled and he brought it home… where it has spent the last ten years, still dismantled.
Recently Bruce Short, who runs Shorts Trees and Wreaths just north of Stryker on St. Rt. 2, was in the Stryker Hardware Store where Rick Wityk works. Rick mentioned the little Holiday House to Bruce. They agreed that it ought to be set up somewhere and that maybe he should use it next year by his barn. A few days later, Short was back and telling Wityk that his family loved the idea and wondered if they could go ahead and use it this year!
On Thursday, December 3, 2020 some of the veterans from the Stryker America Legion gave it a good power wash, helped haul it out to the Tree display and a bunch of “soldiers and friends” helped Bruce and Rick set it up. It is a delightful addition to the atmosphere already there where Short has an old red pickup with a tree in the back, and a sleigh, already adorning the yard where happy families are continually shopping for trees and wreaths for their homes.
On Saturday and Sunday, December 12 and 13, Santa again got to sit in that little house built so long ago for him to entertain the little ones. Maybe this will become a new tradition for the Stryker area, who knows? Thanks, Rick, for your hold on the importance of history!
Rebecca can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com
CHRISTMAS EXCITEMENT … Addison and Charlotte Stuckey from West Unity, Ohio, hopped out of their family vehicle with their parents on December 8, 2020 all excited to pick out their Christmas tree at Shorts Trees and Wreaths. When they saw the little house with the sign on the door that says, “Santa’s House” their eyes lit up. They went inside by invitation of one of the builders, Rick Wityk, who was there, and both little girls agreed that it was ready for Santa and that they were sure he would find it “just right!”
