The sculptor names each work; this one is called Crossing Time Zones.

Steinbacher had always sold her sculptures by custom order, but last year she approached Paul Folk, owner of Rustic Stuff in Scottsdale, about retailing them. “She had three or four Santas with her in the car, and one of them was strapped into the front seat like a person,” Folk recalls of their first meeting. “As soon as I opened the car door, I was just blown away by the detail in the faces.

“What separates Debra’s sculptures from others is that everything about them is handmade, and each is one of a kind,” he adds. “Other sculptors do a face by hand and then they turn it over to a factory for mass production of the body and clothes, and that’s fine if that’s what you’re looking for. But there’s just not as much time, precision and passion in those like there is in Debra’s Santas. Everyone who sees them admires them.”  

The holiday season is never over for Steinbacher, who sells sculptures from her home studio year-round.

This Santa holds a miniature pipe with pewter bowl.

On any given day, she can be found carefully stitching an antique hatpin onto Santa’s mink-trimmed cap or applying a delicate rose tint to another Santa’s cheeks. “I hope my sculptures spread a little of that nostalgia, sentiment and goodwill that the holiday season brings,” she remarks. “With each one I feel I’m sharing an heirloom of the future.”