HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- Anne Weeks has more Santa-themed items in her Christmas decorating scheme than you do.

Way, way more.

"I would say I probably have 400 that are in the house now," said Weeks, sitting on her living room sofa in front of a long wooden wall sign adorned with a message that went without saying: "I believe in Santa."

Everywhere you turned in her house, smiling or laughing Santa images gazed back, from the walls and shelves, the tables, the floors. Then there were the many Santa-fied ornaments on an upside-down Christmas tree hanging from the ceiling. We'll get to those in a minute.

Her collection, which began with a single Santa that her mother gave her, has outgrown her small house.

Don't get confused should you visit Weeks at her office -- she heads the nonprofit Mountain State Centers for Independent Living, which provides resources to the disabled -- as you may think she is instead an Amway Santa rep.

"My friends that buy for me at Christmas say I'm not going buy you another Santa Claus -- then they usually do because they find one that they think 'Oh, she needs this one!' That's one reason why they're spilling over into my office."

She looked up into the air, where the living room walls met the ceiling. "I might put a plate wall along the ceiling so I could start putting them up there ..."

Her collection began in earnest in the early 1980s. It helped when she bought the house -- all that Santa space. 

"When I moved into this house in '93 and was deciding how I wanted to decorate it, I thought 'I really like Santa Clauses. And they really are something that are meaningful to me."

Her collection is wide-ranging, featuring depictions of Santa Claus in his many European manifestations, as Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas and Sinterklaas. She has a horsehair Santa from South America and a felt-capped "tomte," a mythical creature from Scandinavian folklore who became a Santa figure.

The collection is also a personal one. An extended family of palm-sized stick Santas made by her father occupies one shelf. A tole-painted candleholder Santa crafted by her mother rests on a piano.

Visitors in October might think Weeks has put her Christmas decorations up early to get in the holiday spirit. If they return in February, they might think she's been too busy to take them down.

Don't be fooled - Santa is here to stay.

"Most of the collection is up year round," said Weeks.

The true spirit of Santa can stand the test of time, she said, despite the uber-commercialization of marketers who've gang-pressed Santa into unwilling service as a product pitchman.

"There's a commercial on TV of a robot elf saying something about Santa in an electronic voice -- I'm thinking we have gone way over the top. To me, that kind of stuff is not Christmas and it's certainly not Santa.

"I definitely am sticking with the older traditional Santas and the old feeling about Santa. Santa to me means someone who is giving of himself. It somewhat relates with the spiritual sense of Christ giving of himself. Keeping the kindness and that spirit is what it means to me."

As for upside-down Christmas trees, a friend turned her on to them after seeing some at a year-round Christmas shop in Amish country in Berlin, Ohio. "I like it and it stays out of the way and you don't have to take up a lot of room in your house with the tree."

Which, of course, means more room -- on the tree and on the floor -- for the latest Santas that may have wandered into her house in the meantime.

"I have a lot of different trees I can do -- like a Victorian tree. But my Santa collection and some kind of quirky and funky ornaments are on this tree because that kind of goes, I think, with the upside-down Christmas tree."

Reach Douglas Imbrogno at doug...@cnpapers.com or 304-348-3017.