His black boots clung to aluminum ladder rungs; one mittened hand grasped a second floor window sill.

Santa has climbed toward the roof of 11 Washington Avenue with a sack of gifts slung over one shoulder since the day after Thanksgiving. Renaming him Santa Hook, Sandy Hook homeowner Jackie Stakel’s front yard is the most recent of many places the red-suited old elf has adorned, all in Ms Stakel’s family for the past three generations.

Her family’s Santa is old, she said. Late afternoon sun set Santa aglow on November 27 while Ms Stakel and her “elves” — Kerry McKenna and “head elf” Carrie Philipp — decorated the front lawn with garlands of greens, strung small trees with white lights, and added pinecones and bells to the front door. Having set the perfect holiday stage with Jolly Old St Nicholas carrying toys down chimneys on Christmas Eve, Ms Stakel said this is the first year she has had the oversize decoration at her house.

“I remember him, and my dad remembers him” coming out at Christmastime each year, she said. Recalling Santa’s original journey, her grandfather, Frederick Stakel, Sr, first received him as a gift from an ad agency in Pittsburgh. Santa then moved with the family to Massachusetts, then New Canaan, where he “sat up high” on an old, classic slate roof, she said. How her grandfather had gotten him up there is a mystery to her.

Santa next moved with Ms Stakel’s father, Frederick Stakel, Jr, to Bridge End Farm Lane in Sandy Hook.

This year was Ms Stakel’s turn.

“My dad asked, ‘Do you want Santa?’” He had not been ready to part with him previously, she said.

Looking up at the ruddy cheeks and snow-white beard, Ms Stakel wondered if he was once used in cola ads. “He was definitely an advertisement for something,” she said.

Now, he heralds the approaching seasons for giving gifts, and spending time close to a crackling fire.