Nancy Rumsey displays a Santa figurine from Michigan. She has a collection from all U.S. states except Hawaii and Alaska. Rumsey will add to the collection only by going to the state to acquire a piece. She also has Santas representing 20 countries.

When Nancy Rumsey pulls out her Christmas decorations every December, she sets out her Santa Claus collection.

This year, it’s 67 Santas strong.

Some feature Santa in his traditional outfit, ready to hop onto his sleigh and deliver presents to children. In others, Santa shows another side, like playing tennis.

They’re all different, and each one in the collection has come from a place the Lawrence woman has visited.

“I just feel privileged to have been able to have explored this country firsthand,” said Rumsey, who started collecting Santas in 1995. “There’s a lot out there.”

She got the idea to start her collection after visiting the Amana Colonies in Iowa. Rumsey already had a Kansas Santa from her hometown of Fort Scott and one from Missouri.

She has a rule: One Santa per state.

On trips with her husband, Jim, her daughters, Kate Baker and Sarah Walker, or sometimes her friends, Rumsey would find time to buy a Santa.

In October, she finished the lower 48 states while in Georgia. She also acquired 19 Santas from other countries, mostly in Europe, but also nations in the Caribbean as well as Canada and Mexico.

Sometimes the shopping was a challenge because she might have only been passing through a state. Rumsey had to find one in a couple of hours, but it has all worked out so far.

She remembers picking up one crafted in New Hampshire in the middle of their travels through New England.

“It was a roadside shop. I think it was $5,” she said.

Others weren’t quite as cheap. “There are the ones when I said, ‘Don’t you dare tell your father how much I spent,'” she said.

Her first Santa came from Kansas; it was handcrafted and she bought it in Fort Scott.

The memories come out each year as Rumsey sets them out on a shelf in her family’s living room in west Lawrence.

There are two more American Santas she needs. Her family plans to go to Hawaii next year, so that will leave Alaska some day for the finale.

Well, the American Santa finale.

“And then,” she said, “I’ll start on the rest of the world.”