It starts as 48x4x8 block of wood, but when Norman Altman sits behind his work bench in Syracuse, he sees Santa Claus in the raw material. Each year, Norman Altman hand-carves and paints wooden ...

Leiser, who sports a Santa-like beard himself, said It takes about 10 hours of carving and painting to produce a single finished Santa Claus. He does his own painting and sells the St. Nick images ...