Longtime Fairfax Hardware owner Art Pleasanton had two requests before retiring and handing over the keys to his Concord Pike store last May.
- Make sure the male employees who help customers continue wearing ties.
- Keep the beloved Santa's Mailbox, a hand-painted, vintage depository of Christmas hopes, wishes and dreams, parked outside the store every December.
Jeff Ulmer, who bought the Fairfax Shopping Center business from Pleasanton about seven months ago, had no problem with either request. He wasn't about to mess with the magic of Christmas.
"I'm all for tradition," said Ulmer on Tuesday as he stood near the faded cherry-colored kid-size Santa's mailbox that's been a Fairfax tradition since about 1950.
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"I love Christmas. I was excited to do it."
At Fairfax Hardware, the employees are still the same, and the men still wear ties.
Ulmer said since taking over, he has only upgraded the lighting inside the store to make it brighter, reorganized a few shelves and added new merchandise.
But, he plans no updates to Santa's mailbox, which hasn't had a new paint job in at least 45 years.
"I don't think we need to fix anything that's not broke. I like the old-timey, old-fashioned feel of it," he said.
Ulmer understands more than most the importance of a custom being passed from generation to generation.
His family has been operating Action Hardware in Branmar Plaza since 1979. Ulmer, who grew up in Bear, took over the business from his father.
There's never been a Santa's mailbox at Action Hardware in Branmar and Ulmer doesn't think he'll be adding one anytime soon since the handmade mailbox at the Fairfax Shopping Center is so unique.
In fact, it's actually older than center itself and has roots going back to the late 1940s.
The sturdy metal and wooden structure was likely part of a Christmas display at a hardware store in Wilmington's Trolley Square that was owned by the late Charles J. Noonan. He was a World War II Army veteran who earned a Bronze Star during the D-Day invasion.
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Noonan Brothers Hardware was first located at the corner of Delaware Avenue and North Scott Street in Wilmington. (The site is now home to Ober R. Kline Picture Framing.)
Noonan made the mailbox for his children and it was probably displayed in the then Trolley Square store.
When Noonan Brothers moved its store to the Fairfax area, a post-World War II Wilmington suburban neighborhood that sprang up in the 1950s, the mailbox moved with them.
Ever since, whoever has owned the hardware store has been the steward of Santa's mail.
When Pleasanton bought the store in 1994, he set the mailbox out on the sidewalk during the holiday season, just as all the previous owners before him have done.
But when Pleasanton announced last spring that he was retiring, many customers and longtime employees were worried that the Santa's mailbox tradition would end.
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Ashley Onorato, who has worked at the store for five years, said the mailbox is very important to her and the surrounding community.
Some customers, who dropped letters to Santa in the mailbox when they were children, now bring their own youngsters and even grandchildren. The mailbox gets between 50 to 100 letters each season.
"We kept hearing, 'This is important' and 'You should keep it up every year,' " said Onorato, who loves the mailbox so much that last year she made tiny versions of it to give as Christmas gifts.
Ulmer said no one has to worry about the enduring Delaware tradition.
"It will be here as long as I'm here," he said.
Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 or ptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter @pattytalorico
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