Kansas City News Blog

A pixilated leviathan of holiday cheer, this block-headed Santa Claus lords over Gillham Park, at 41st and Gillham, watching over the children and parents who gather for chilly fun during the day and get the holy hell away at night.

Unlike the rest of him, there's nothing Lego-y about his face.


Those cloud-tuft eyebrows, that angel-wing mustache, that uncircumcised nose, those wide, swollen, frostbit patches showing just how hard an Arctic lifestyle is on a man.

Much of the rest of the park has that old-school computer look, too. Pop quiz: Is this the park, or a screen shot from the never released Nintendo 64 game "Super Mario's 3D Depressing Christmas"?



On this mailbox, designed to collect children's letters to the North Pole, even Santa himself is showing signs of SAD.



Then there's this lumpish, no-handed, cloven-hoofed cowgirl.

Is this some abstract Henry Moore stolen from the Nelson and repainted by kids?

Years ago, Gillham Park was home each December to giant Santas and snowmen kids could climb around inside. (I loved them, no matter how much they smelled like pee.) These days, kids still love the park, even if some of it is confusing. My niece thrilled to it, and she demanded time after time to go back, even around 5, when darkness had settled and those in the neighborhood are accustomed to hearing sirens and helicopters.

Thanks, crazy retro Commodore 64 Christmas park!
— Alan Scherstuhl