The front yard of Jane Osborne’s Chestnut Street home is missing something — someone, rather — very special this holiday season. On Thursday, Dec. 5, her family’s four-feet tall plastic Santa disappeared from their front yard and has not been returned.

This particular Santa is no ordinary holiday decoration for the family, though. “It’s been in our family for four generations now,” Osborne told the OBSERVER. “My mom and dad got it as free gift when they bought furniture from a store in Gowanda many, many years ago when I was about 16 years old.”

Osborne, her children, and now her grandchildren have enjoyed Santa’s annual presence in the yard. “We always got a charge out of wiring it to our light pole ever year,” she said of the plastic Santa, which contains a bulb that lights up.

On Monday, the OBSERVER published Osborne’s letter to the editor, which asked readers to contact her or Fredonia Police with any information. Although she has not received any leads regarding her Santa’s whereabouts, she has enjoyed some hopeful phone calls from well-intentioned community members.

“A gentleman called to offer to give me a plastic Santa,” Osborne told the OBSERVER. “That was so nice of him.” Osborne declined the offer, as she and her family hope to have their Santa returned; however, she remarked, “That was so nice of him! Our Santa is nothing that would be meaningful to anybody else. But it was so generous of this gentleman to offer to replace it.”

Another community member called Osborne to tell her that he had two Santa decorations stolen from his yard last year. “He said they were returned after Christmas, and I hope that our Santa will be, too,” she said.

Osborne does not have any photos of her Santa, but she asks anyone who has information on the decoration to call her at 672-4555 or the Fredonia Police Department at 679-1531.