Just nuts about nutcrackers: layton woman counts hundreds in her collection
BRIAN WOlFER/Special to the Standard-ExaminerSandy Bingham (right) and her husband Kurt show off some of her of nutcrackers in their home in layton.
BRIAN WOlFER/Special to the Standard-ExaminerSandy Bingham shows off her huge collection of nutcrackers.
Sandy Bingham shows off her huge collection of nutcrackers. In Layton, on November 26 2013. (Brian Wolfer Special to the Standard-Examiner)
Sandy Bingham shows off her huge collection of nutcrackers. In Layton, on November 26 2013. (Brian Wolfer Special to the Standard-Examiner)
Thanks to Tchaikovsky and his holiday sugar plum of a ballet, “The Nutcracker” — the little doll with jaws like iron and a soldier’s bearing — has become a Christmas decoration mainstay.
For Sandra Bingham, a collector of many fine things, nutcrackers may be the most enchanting part about Christmas. Heck, she has one entire Christmas tree festooned with nothing but nutcracker ornaments.
“There might not be a nutcracker made that I wouldn’t buy,” said Bingham, who lives in Layton. “I am not even certain how many I have, but it has to be at least 300, easy, counting the ones on the tree — which we do.”
Bingham got her first toy nutcracker as a child, part of a “Babes in Toyland” set. Even then, she says, she was entranced. But the serious collection began when she was a young woman in the mid-’80s and bought one for her mother and herself. Bingham purchased those first ones on what used to be an annual Christmas shopping trip to San Francisco. At the time, nutcrackers were still more of a European holiday decoration, and rather rare here.
“It used to be my passion to get the most special thing I could at Christmas for my mother,” said Bingham. “I found this limited-edition nutcracker, and it was so beautiful and tall.”
Since her mother’s passing, Bingham has become the proud owner of those first two nutcracker finds.
“They are a little different color. I think hers was the red one, and mine is the blue, but I don’t remember exactly whose was whose.”
That tradition of buying one for herself when she finds one to give as a gift continues to this day.
“Frankly, I can’t quite bear to not have one someone else does.”
The collection grows
Soon after Bingham gave and bought her first collectable nutcrackers, she started to notice and acquire more. However, it was gradual at first, as her collection was restricted by her frugal income as a young woman.
“When ZCMI was up here, they would carry a few very nice ones.” She laughed. “Really, though, I didn’t buy many of those because they were way too expensive and I was young and poor.”
As Bingham’s fortunes grew, so did her collection — and so did the types of nutcrackers available. Not only did she start getting more and better classic nutcrackers, she also started finding unusual ones — some working, some representational, all appealing to Bingham.
“Maybe 20 years ago or so, they started coming up with all different kinds and characters of nutcrackers. I have sports figures, one for every holiday of the year, and literally a bunch of butchers and bakers and candlestick makers. I have every nationality, I think. I have an Easter bunny and a Dracula, and skiers and golfers and Uncle Sams.”
Yes, that’s Uncle Sams, plural. The first she received as a gift about seven years ago, when she and her husband Kurt, were stationed in Okinawa, Japan.
“Then, I also get anything nutcracker-themed — place cards for the table, crystal candlesticks, blown-glass ornaments, snow globes, little silly light-up nutcrackers — for my grandkids, of course. Then, when we went to Japan, I found those German nutcrackers — and this time, I was older, and had more money. So I got a few.”
Bingham has also received many nutcrackers as gifts over they years. Her kinfolk, for one, can’t seem to help themselves.
“No one in my family ever worried about what to get me for my November birthday — they just got me Christmas stuff, and nutcrackers, especially. But what is funny is many of them were given to me by people I am not particularly close to. They’d come to my house and see them, and I guess they were enchanted, and wanted to get in on it.”
Art pieces
What might be the most curious thing about Bingham’s magnificent nutcracker obsession is that it did not start with seeing the Tchaikovsky ballet, or even loving that music.
“But I now hum the music while I put them out. They like it.” She laughs. “And yes, I do credit my nutcrackers with a bit of anthropomorphism, I suppose. But even though I had actually not heard the entire ballet when I started collecting, people have since given me CDs and videos and I do like it.”
So, if not the story of the toy turned dashing young prince, what was it that hooked Bingham?
“I guess they are art pieces to me. And they are never menacing, but they look strong. And then, I like the colors. Not just shiny and bright, but every color of the rainbow.”
When asked if she’ll purchase one to add to her collection this year, Bingham laughed and said, “One? I am trying to fight my obsession, but this year I’ve bought at least 20 already.”
And what is the big trend in nutcrackers she’s seen? Bingham said that artists are exploring the feminine side.
“It is funny, because until very recently, I had found not a single female nutcracker, but now I do. And there is one I spotted at Pier One that might be my special one this year. She is dressed in leopard, and loaded with shopping bags and a purse — like a classic lady shopper from a cartoon.
“She is the first just plain woman I’ve seen, and I really like her. I think I have to have her.”
Contact reporter Linda East Brady at 801-625-4279 or lbrady@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter @LindaEastBrady.
Biggest — Three feet
Smallest — One inch
Weirdest — A Jim Shore figure that is a ship’s captain, complete with the parrot on his arm. Said nutcracker collector Sandy Bingham: “He is not Christmas-y at all. He’s all ‘Arrgh.’ But I love him!”
Most costly — Authentic German nutcrackers by Steinbach and Erzgebirge can cost hundreds of dollars, said Bingham. “I also have some Christopher Radko that are glass and they are expensive. They are less than the German nutcrackers, about $40 apiece, but they are only about 2 inches tall.”
Strangest place purchased — “I have purchased them in thrift stores, but I guess the place I didn’t really expect to find a lot, but found many, and really fine ones, was Japan.”
Most curious feature — Bingham said that one of the strangest things she has noticed is the fact that nutcrackers do not typically have ears. “I have sets from the ballet, with the other characters, and they all have ears, but never the nutcrackers. I think I have only two that have ears,” she noted.
Favorite — To ask Bingham which she favors most is like asking her to pick a favorite child. “I do have some I am more enchanted with than others,” she confessed. “I have a European glass man who is beautiful, but he is not a working nutcracker. He has the teeth, but they don’t move — but I do love looking at him.
“I like the ones by Christopher Radko, too. He is the king of amazing color — a two-inch nutcracker designed by him might have 15 colors on it.”
Bingham decided the top spot might go to a three-footer her daughter Mandy gave her. He’s a stately soldier that presides over the Christmas baking in Bingham’s kitchen — rather plump, she said, as though he’d sampled her holiday goodies overmuch.
“He is kind of the king of the house.”