Ho-ho-huh? It’s hard to miss the 40-foot Santa Claus in this Fort Worth neighborhood
It’s hard to miss the Kinzie family’s Christmas decorations.
Just look for the 40-foot inflatable Santa Claus that towers high above their front yard on West Sixth Street in the Monticello neighborhood.
The mega Santa waves to passersby among a cluster of presents, a nativity scene and a 26-foot inflatable Christmas tree. Anyone who drives past it can hardly tell there’s a two-story house behind the decorations.
“GigantaSanta,” as it’s called, is here for two reasons, says homeowner Walter Kinzie: To spread the true meaning of the season (the birth of Jesus), and to bring a little joy.
Kinzie’s two young daughters have always loved inflatables. When the family decided to get one of their own, they wanted to go big. They have inflatables for all seasons, but Kinzie said Christmas is when they go all out.
GigantaSanta came all the way from China, and almost didn’t make it to Fort Worth. Kinzie, who owns an events management company, ordered it in September 2021, but the package got stuck on a container ship in the Pacific Ocean. PayPal worked with the manufacturer to help refund the few thousand dollars the family spent on the 40-foot giant.
It wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago when a delivery driver knocked on the door saying he needed help unloading a 450-pound box.
Christmas had finally arrived.
GigantaSanta is on a schedule — he’s up most days around 8 a.m. and goes to sleep by 9 p.m. Day-to-day maintenance is pretty easy, but it took a few hours to get GigantaSanta standing the first time, Kinzie said. The inflatable went up Nov. 1.
“We start celebrating Christmas right away,” said Kinzie, whose Christmas lights have been up since September.
Most people seem to like the display. The family often sees people through their front-door camera posing in front of the inflatable and taking pictures. Others, Kinzie said, take different routes to school just to pass by GigantaSanta. Some even leave notes in a red decorative mailbox on the outskirts of the property.
At least one neighbor has grumbled privately about whether GigantaSanta is too, well, gigantic, and whether there were city rules about this sort of thing. The Kinzie family didn’t get any special city permitting before erecting GigantaSanta, but they didn’t need to since city regulations don’t prohibit inflatables in private yards.
The comments appeared positive on GigantaSanta’s own Instagram account, which had nearly 90 followers as of Monday.
“It’s kind of a revolving door of people stopping by regularly saying, ‘Thank you for doing this,’” Kinzie said, adding that the country needed the joy and happiness.
Kinzie’s message to Fort Worth: Keep coming by. Additions to his already abundant display are on their way.
“You never know what else might show up in between now and Christmas morning,” he said.
This story was originally published November 21, 2022 at 5:02 PM.
