Every year, Henry Franco decorates his Members Only Barber Shop for Christmas. Not just the traditional trimming with paintings on the windows and a few lights; but the entire storefront, and inside as well.
This year the Santa Barbara shop, at 2005 State St., will be transformed into a Christmas Winter Wonderland, with the Polar Bear, back by popular demand.
Henry Franco — just Franco to his clients — opened his business in 1995 and has been making Christmas come true every year since then.
Community members may recall the decorations from the shop’s former location on Victoria Street; the small building was decorated from bottom to the rooftop.
One year it was a polar bear dressed in rubber duckie pajamas on an igloo, and the next year the entire building was transformed into a gingerbread house.
Franco has been awarded numerous medals by the Downtown Organization’s holiday decorating contest, and they hang proudly in his shop.
As a tonsorial artist, Franco decorated the interior of his shop with a traditional barbershop theme, and everywhere you look you will see his other artistic abilities as a modern artist.
Christmas is not what it used to be, said Franco.
“It doesn’t look like Christmas anymore,” Franco said. “I just want to bring back some of that joy, I enjoy the smiles it brings people, and I love to watch all the people stopping by to take pictures.”
This year Franco will bring back the Polar Bear as the headliner with a few surprises, and he is already making plans for Christmas 2019.
For more information, call 805-965-1845, or visit http://www.membersonlybarbershop.com/.
— Members Only Barber Shop.