Using mostly basswood, a couple of carving knives and a fingernail file, the Norway man has whittled and painted 25 wooden Santas to adorn his fireplace at Christmas time.

Creating approximately one a year for the past 20 years, Langin said every Santa has its own story. As does Langin, who was nudged into making the Christmas carvings by both his best friend and a neighbor.

Langin, a retired Norway Power Dam operator and former substitute teacher, said he has “always been monkeying with stuff.” As a young boy, he constructed kites out of items he found in his Dad’s workshop. He also made money splitting apart rollerskates to build skateboards, charging the neighborhood kids 50 cents a toy.

Bob “Cubby” Martignon has known Langin most of his life and also is a wood carver.

ONE OF BOB Langin’s carved wooden Santas.

“I use to go over Cubby’s almost every day. He’s an older gentleman. I went to school with his boy — he lived for Christmas and Santa Claus. We would visit and talk carving, and he was after me to carve Santa Clauses,” Langin said.

As he was clearing the trash racks at the power dam one day, a stick caught Langin’s eye.

“I threw it in my truck, and somehow it told me I had to put a duck on it,” he said.

This prompted him to take on his first wood carving project — a walking stick with a duck handle.

“I stuck it in the corner and never thought more about it or used it,” he said.

But he soon received a second nudge.

“My neighbor, Mike Hamlin, was looking at some of the old drawings I did way back when, and he said I should try carving. We grew up together, and he knew the way I always putzed,” Langin said. “Then it hit me — maybe I will try one. Cubby was on me for years, but I just needed that extra push from Mike to get me going.”

His first Santa carving was a skier, he said, “because I didn’t know what else to do.”

The next three Santas also were skiers, each one a little different and a little better than the next. Langin also tried whittling a pipe, Christmas ornaments and knick knacks.

“If I messed up a Santa, I’d make it into a pin or a refrigerator magnet,” he said.

Getting inspiration from coloring books and current events, Langin has made a variety of Santas with different hobbies and expressions.

“I try to put different faces on the Santas,” he said.

Some have short beards, some a longer mustache, one has “surprised eyes, as if kids came around the corner,” he said.

Because Langin loves reading, many of his Santas have a book.

Linda, his wife of 40 years, requested he carve a few Santas sitting and add some different colors to “set the display off a little bit.

She thinks all the Santas are cute and said carving keeps her husband occupied. “He’s not just sitting in the chair; he is using his hands and his mind,” she said.

Neighbor Ebie Stack only recently learned Langin was a wood carver. He gifted her a Packers ornament as a dig because she is a Lion fan. She puts it on her tree anyway, because she appreciates the craftsmanship.

“I haven’t lived next door for a really long time, but I never knew he did this. I don’t think a lot of people in Norway know he does this,” Stack said.

Langin’s collection includes a deer-hunting Santa wearing snowshoes, a Santa wearing a Stormy Kromer hat, Santa toting a bag full of bait, Santa riding a polar bear, one coming out the chimney, one playing hockey, a relaxing Santa, and another pulling a sleigh.

Although he doesn’t remember what year every carving was made, a couple pieces do stand out, Langin said.

The Packers Santa was carved in 2010. “I started this around September. We had a new young quarterback, cocky as hell, and we still had a lot of good players left over from the Favre generation, and I had a feeling. I made the Santa before Christmas. I made Santa Clause going to the game, with bottles of beer in his sack and all set up with his ‘cheesehead’ and the Super Bowl trophy in his hand. That one was my prediction, and if you recall, we went in as a wild card and we won the Super Bowl,” he said.

The hockey Santa also was memorable.

“Quite a few years ago, they had a lockout and I had a meltdown. So Santa Claus is playing pond hockey that year, and the Red Wings colors just happen to be his colors,” he said.

This year, Langin started his carving during the Supreme Court hearings.

“And then there was a shooting. So I said enough of that and Santa Clause pulled out the Bible, and he is giving a sermon about what Christmas is about. He is lecturing the people,” Langin said.

After a couple decades of carving under his friend’s direction, Langin said Martignon no longer lives close by. “Now he is down at assisted living, and I bring the carvings down to show him. I brought him down this one and he looked it over and he said, ‘Listen, Bob, you have your hands too small.’ He’s still looking over my stuff,” Langin said.

Theresa Proudfit can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 45, or tproudfit@ironmountaindailynews.com.