Joan Johnson has given up count, but then it’s not numbers that matter.

The Santa experience at Johnson’s home starts with a Santa Claus doormat, a hanging Santa head on the back of the door, a Santa stocking on the wall and framed Santa Christmas cards.

It gets more intense from there.

Her Christmas tree has Santa ornaments and is topped by a Santa doll. Below the tree lies a present wrapped in Santa paper. Santa magnets adorn Johnson’s refrigerator and beside her sink a Santa nightlight is plugged into the outlet. Santa paper napkins and cups are on the counter along with a Santa cookie tray. On the walls hang paper Santa faces and a stained glass Santa Claus. Figurines of the famous elf have engulfed her shelves and dining room table. Santas stand on the floor in the corners of rooms and next to lampposts. Atop her couches sit Santa dolls and pillows. They are everywhere.

Johnson has collected about 500 Santa Claus over the past 36 years.

“I don’t know, I just started and never stopped,” she laughed. “I had so many and said, well, I can’t stop now.”

It all began when she used to buy the little Santa figurines for a dollar at Ann & Hope.

“People used to rush in and get them,” she recalls. Johnson cannot remember which Claus came first but she does know that she has not broken or thrown away even one in that time.

“I love them,” said Johnson looking over her collection, “They have to be up a month or more. You can’t do all that work and not.”

Every year Johnson spends five to six hours over three days setting up her collection, displaying them according to theme. Santas with lists are grouped together as are Santas with pipes or animals. Santas with sports themes have their own bookcase, as do Coca Cola Santas.

When she unpacks her collection, Johnson always finds pieces she didn’t remember she had.

“Every year you forget, I see one and think well here’s a nice Santa Claus, you forget when you have 500 of them.”

According to Johnson, the collection has now taken on a life of its own. “I have finally got to the point where I have stopped buying them,” she said, but the Santas keep coming regardless. She sees them when she goes to the pharmacy and they are so nice and inexpensive that they temp her.

Her family and friends buy or make her Santas each year.

She has a Santa that her friend, Monica D’Abrosca, made from a two liter soda bottle. Her co-worker, Sunny Cummings, made the stained glass Santa in the kitchen and her daughter-in-law Judy made her the ceramic Santa ornaments hanging from her dining room light fixture.

Every year her brother-in-law, Anthony Musco, will send her a Santa from Virginia that he found for cheap at a yard sale. Her oldest son, Hank Jr. has a contract with Marvel and gave her a plate with Batman, Harley Quinn, and Joker in a Santa cap. When she retired from the Warwick Public Library in 2005 her parting gift was a Santa ornament and a big Santa figurine that sits on the floor of her living room next to the couch.

“Christmas is my favorite time of year, that’s why I put them up so early,” said Johnson after righting a fallen figurine. “If only it was always Christmas, isn’t that what they say? When everybody’s usually happy.” Not far from the Santa that fell is a Santa with a sack overflowing with smaller Santas.

The figurines on Johnson’s dining room table take the longest to set up, about three hours. An aluminum foil river wines over the white gauze covered table. Little Santas skate and a parade of Santa sleighs, cars and locomotives cross the river on a porcelain bridge. The parade begins next to a cornucopia of mini Santas doing flips and cartwheels and is headed by a Santa police officer. On the back of the table sits a porcelain village atop a mountain of gauze covered books.

Johnson has African Santas and ones that represent different European countries but her favorites by far are the handmade Santas her son, Kevin and ex-husband Hank Johnson brought her from Ireland.

Finding a place to put all her Santas becomes a problem. Johnson has to add a leaf to her dining room table and has bought a bookcase to fit her sports Santas.

“I don’t think I have a duplicate Santa Claus,” said Johnson of her collection that includes singing Santas, Santa stocking holders, night-lights, napkins, cups, plates, and figurines that range from an inch to a foot tall.

Every once in a while Johnson will give into temptation and buy herself a new Santa Claus for her collection which she packs away into 5 big boxes and many little boxes after New Years.

“I let them stay up until then.”

Does Joan Johnson believe in Santa Claus? What a silly question.