Christmas Spirit Keeps Her Merry Rest of the Year

Around her workplace, Dottie Kraus is called Santa Kraus and often gets Merry Krausmas wishes. It seems fitting, since she celebrates Christmas the year around with three Christmas trees and nearly 100 Santa Claus figures in her Santa Ana home.

“You can never get depressed if you have Santa Claus living in a Christmas room in your house,” is her logical reason for the 365-day celebration.

Kraus said she likes the feeling of good will that comes with Christmas. “I love Christmas, and it’s a shame we can’t keep that feeling the year around,” she said.

Kraus notes, however, that more people seem to be spending additional time celebrating Christmas by leaving the tree and decorations up throughout December.

“I think that helps people keep the good-will spirit for a longer time, too,” she added.

At Brea Junior High School, where Kraus works as a guidance counselor, she often metes out discipline in her office, which contains a year-round Christmas tree and part of her ornament collection.

“A lot of the students know my feeling for Christmas, and many of them send me Santa Claus figures for presents, which I add to the collection,” said Kraus, whose Santa Claus shopping trips extend as far north as Solvang.

Kraus, a Brooklyn native, has developed a hobby from her affection for the yuletide holiday by collecting sundry holiday-related items, including music boxes.

Her collections have taken a toll of her home, where she has removed closets to make room for her Christmas keepsakes, including 8-foot, 4-foot and 3-foot imitation Christmas trees.

“During the Christmas holiday I buy a real tree for the living room and decorate it with the ornaments I have collected,” she said. “I have to have a real tree for Christmas.”

So well known is her Christmas spirit that Kraus was paid tribute at a leadership conference at the Anaheim Convention Center with an ornament-covered Christmas tree and a message that read, “Like this snowflake, Dottie is an original.”

The tree holds a place of honor in her office, where she works as a school activities director as well as an instructor for student government classes.

In addition, she is the publications director for the California Assn. of Activities and is a founding member of the Leadership Assn. of Southern California.

“I don’t have a whole lot of extra time,” she said, “so I have to combine my Christmas shopping with my regular shopping.”

Kraus said she’s happy with her job at the school but wouldn’t mind getting an extra special Christmas present this year.

“I’m looking for a job as an elementary school principal,” she said.

There was Michael Gay, a 21-year-old sailor, having a good time on a weekend liberty from the battleship USS New Jersey, which is berthed in Long Beach.

He decided to visit Newport Beach and went into a store for some ice cream.

Instead, he walked into an armed robbery.

The suspect rifled the cash register, ran out and made his getaway in a car. Gay jumped into his own car, and the chase was on.

Unfortunately--not knowing Gay was the good guy--witnesses in the parking lot gave police Gay’s

license plate number. It wasn’t long before he was stopped by officers.

And would you believe that while Gay was explaining the mistake, the suspect had made a U-turn and was driving by the officers?

Gay alertly pointed him out, so the cops took off and nabbed the suspect. The arraignment is set for Feb. 16 in Santa Ana Superior Court.

The Villa Nova Restaurant in Newport Beach gave Gay its Outstanding Citizen Award--as well as a complimentary meal.

With ice cream.