Christmas is Elizabeth Raol's favorite time of the year.

That's apparent when you enter her historic South Hill home, which is adorned with all things Christmas, the most prominent of which are a collection of white-bearded figures, clad in luxurious fur coats with some carrying children's toys in rustic packs flung on their backs. One in particular is 5 feet 7 inches tall and stands in the corner by the fireplace, his waistline comfortably round and his blue glass eyes twinkling.

He is Father Christmas, and so are his comrades around the house.

Raol is the artist behind these life-like heirlooms, the creation of which began 15 years ago as a hobby and has become a profitable business called Old World Father Christmas.

She says she made her first Father Christmas figurines for her own four children, after she'd seen similar ones done by others, but since then has created around 225 of them, each one unique, and has sold the majority of them. The ornate creations mostly are sold directly to customers, often by word-of-mouth, but also through her Web site, at www.elizabethraol.com.

Raol also has kept some of her favorites for display around her home year-round, including the life-size model which she says she'll never sell. "I love having them around," she says. "They're happy little guys."

Raol says her hobby became a business venture when other people saw her creations and asked her to make them one, too. Word-of-mouth caused demand for the figurines to grow, she says.

"In the beginning they weren't like the ones I make now at all," Raol says. "When I started, I'd never taken a sculpting class, so they have definitely evolved over the years. I think now they have more character then they did initially."

She says that in the beginning, she didn't know how to build what's called the armature—the supporting structure that's hidden under the figure's clothes—so she used a wine bottle and attached arms to it, then covered the bottle with a long robe. Later, she and her husband, Pradyuman Raol, developed an armature for the figures that allows them to look as if they are walking on two legs.

"That is what is really fun," she says. "It gives them more character, and as I'm working with them they each have their unique personalities."

Raol says she gives all of her Father Christmas creations a European look, since the name "Father Christmas" harkens back to earlier English Christmas traditions, somewhat different from the modernized idea of Santa Claus the U.S. has.

"I like the Old World look, and I try to achieve that in each one," she says. "Some are whimsical, some are woodsy, and some are more Victorian."

That look is accomplished through her design of each figure's dress, which typically consists of a long fur coat or robe over a vest, with loose-fitting trousers tucked into fur-topped boots. The robes Raol's Father Christmases wear come in several colors, not just red. Originally, the British Father Christmas wore a green robe with white trim.

Some of Raol's Father Christmases wear thick mittens and fur hats, while others are bare-handed and hold children's toys, other gifts, or greenery.

Raol's husband helps her design the miniature electric lanterns carried by some of the figures. The lantern's wiring is tucked away carefully to give the figures a more realistic feel, she says.

The labor-intensive, material-rich creations range in price from $75 for the smallest to $600 for a 40-inch-tall version, she says. Raol says she also offers layaway for customers.

The figures range in height from about 18 inches to five feet, and most of the fabrics Raol uses in their outfits are either vintage or repurposed pieces of clothing, she says.

"If someone has a clothing item or something they want incorporated into their Father Christmas, I can do that with a custom order," she says.

One Father Christmas she made for a customer was dressed in a robe that was made from the customer's grandmother's opera coat, because the woman wanted to be able to see and appreciate the heirloom on a more regular basis, Raol says.

Because Raol makes most of the pieces for the figures in batches, she's not completely sure how long it would take to make one from beginning to end, but estimates it would probably be between 40 and 60 hours.

"When I'm working on them, I try to sculpt a number of heads of one size at once, and then I'll build the armatures and dress the bodies," she says. "The last thing is choosing the head for the body. I choose the faces for the bodies based on what they are wearing."

Raol sculpts the faces and hands for her Father Christmases out of polymer clay that's then hardened by baking it in the oven. The hair and eyebrows are made of white sheep's wool and are glued on after the clay pieces are baked.

"That is what brings them to life and really makes them pop, so it's fun to watch their personalities evolve," she says.

Often when she's working on a batch of faces for Father Christmases, Raol says she'll finish and leave them for a day or two so she can go back and make sure they look the way she wants them to turn out.

"My main goal is to make them look kind," to embody the spirit of the holidays, she says. "And so children aren't afraid of them."

Raol says she gets the inspiration for the facial expressions she sculpts for her Father Christmases from looking at older people's faces.

"They're really a roadmap of their life and the wrinkles they have they've achieved through a lifetime of living," she says.

In addition to the old men, Raol has made some children that she has stationed with a few of the Father Christmases around her home, as well as an older woman, called La Bafana, which is the traditional female counterpart to Father Christmas, she says. Some of those, too, are available for sale.

Raol does all the work on her creations in her home, but says she doesn't have a specific area set aside as a studio. Instead, she says she will work on different parts of the figures in different areas of her house, such as sculpting the heads while she watches TV with her husband.

Besides making anywhere between 15 to 30 Father Christmases a year, Raol makes and sells other handmade pieces, such as pillows, aprons, clothing, and children's toys, she says. Most of those items she sells to clientele she's developed over the years, and adds that she does the other projects because not everyone can afford to buy a Father Christmas.

Usually in the summer months, Raol offers classes for groups of three to four people who are interested in making their own Father Christmas, and using a wine bottle as the armature. She teaches the classes in her home and guides participants in the sculpting of the face and hands, and she sews the clothing for the figures while the students sculpt. She says those classes usually take most of the day and cost about $65 a person, with the participants providing their own polymer clay and fabric.

Right now, Raol says she's working on several new Father Christmases, including one to be donated to The Davenport Hotel & Tower's Christmas Tree Elegance fundraiser for the Spokane Symphony, and some to be shown at the Spokane Art School's free Yuletide show, which runs the weekend of Dec. 10-12 at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture.