Holt Howard Punch Bowl, Pitcher & Mug Sets
Five coordinated Santa drinkware and serving sets spanning some of Holt Howard’s most distinctive Christmas designs.
Holt Howard’s Christmas ceramics were among the company’s most imaginative and enduring creations. Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s, familiar holiday figures—especially Santa Claus—were continually reinterpreted with new expressions, forms, and personalities. Pitchers, mugs, punch bowls, candleholders, salt and pepper shakers, serving pieces, and other giftwares combined practical household use with the humor and character that made Holt Howard designs immediately recognizable.
Santa was particularly important to the company’s Christmas output. Rather than relying on a single standard design, Holt Howard produced a succession of distinct Santa faces and forms, often extending a particular design across coordinated groups of pitchers, mugs, tumblers, serving pieces, and related accessories. Some names used for these designs have become inconsistent over time, and surviving reference sources do not always agree on terminology. For this Archive, related forms are grouped according to their visual design and documented relationships, with historical names noted where useful.
Although Holt Howard also produced Christmas decorations in paper, foil, wood, and other materials, this section concentrates on the ceramic wares that form the heart of the company’s surviving holiday collectibles. The pages that follow begin with the coordinated Santa beverage and serving sets before moving through mugs and candle plates, Starry Eyed Santa, King Santa, other Holt Howard Christmas ceramics, and selected Christmas wares from competing importers.
Santa Beverage & Serving Sets
Winking Santa Pitcher & Mug Set
(Version A)
This seven-piece beverage set consists of a 32-ounce Santa pitcher with six matching 6-ounce mugs. The pitcher measures approximately 6½ inches wide, 4½ inches deep, and 7½ inches high. Examples are documented with both 1960 and 1961 copyright dates, indicating production across at least two Christmas seasons.
The pitcher could also be purchased separately, while the mugs were sold independently in boxes of four. Period reference material identifies the design as “Winking Santa” and notes that it was part of a broader group of matching holiday pieces.
Winking Santa Pitcher & Mug Set
(Version B)
This seven-piece beverage set features a 44-ounce green-eyed Santa pitcher with six matching 6-ounce mugs. The set is documented with a 1959 copyright date and belongs to a broader group of coordinated green-eyed Winking Santa pieces.
The 1997 first-edition guide also reports a smaller 24-ounce matching pitcher, although no example is illustrated there and the Archive has not independently identified one.
Merry Whiskers Santa Pitcher & Mug Set
This seven-piece beverage set consists of a 36-ounce Santa pitcher with six matching 4½-ounce mugs. The pitcher measures approximately 7½ inches tall × 4 inches in diameter, while the mugs measure approximately 2½ inches tall × 2¼ inches in diameter. The pitcher was also sold separately, and surviving examples are documented with a 1959 copyright date.
The design is commonly identified as “Merry Whiskers,” although surviving Holt Howard packaging for a related six-piece miniature mug/table-favor set uses the name “Winking Santa” for the same Santa design, illustrating the overlapping terminology used within Holt Howard’s Christmas lines.
Winking Santa Punch Bowl Set
This 10-piece punch set consists of a 3-quart Santa punch bowl, eight matching 6-ounce mugs, and a candy-cane-striped ladle. Unlike the mugs, which feature winking Santa faces, the Santa on the punch bowl itself has both eyes open. The mugs were produced with both left- and right-winking expressions.
The punch bowl measures approximately 6 inches tall by 8 inches in diameter. The set is backstamped 1962 and was produced in limited numbers. Contemporary reference guides also identify the complete set as “Jolly Mr. Claus.”
Period Advertising
A surviving department-store advertisement offered Holt Howard’s 10-piece Santa punch bowl set at a regular price of $11.00, reduced to $6.99. The ad describes the set as red-and-white ceramic with a 3-quart bowl, ladle, and eight 6-ounce mugs.
Four matching mugs were also offered separately, regularly priced at $1.50 and reduced to $1.00. The advertisement identifies sales locations as the Gift Shop, Downtown, Fourth Floor and Northtown, Lower Level.
Cloud Santa Egg Nog Pitcher & Cups
This distinctive 1967 beverage set features the bearded Santa design commonly known as “Cloud Santa.” Unlike Holt Howard’s other Santa drinkware sets, it was sold with matching handleless cups rather than conventional handled mugs. The pitcher measures approximately 7 inches tall, while the cups measure approximately 3 inches tall and 3 inches in diameter at their widest point.
The broader Cloud Santa line also included matching salt and pepper shakers, miniature mug lights, and at least three different candleholder forms featuring Santa standing, sitting, and lying on his stomach.
More Santa at the Table
These coordinated serving sets were only part of Holt Howard’s Santa drinkware story. The next page turns to the individual Santa mugs and candle plates that carried many of the same playful faces into smaller holiday forms.