03 Dec 2023 There’s always room at the Nutcracker Suite

By Tammy Keith

When Pat Qualls opens the door to her Conway home at Christmastime, children and adults alike are wide-eyed at the sight.

Her collection of 102 colorful nutcrackers is displayed on the baby grand piano, multiple tables and the kitchen island. “I have just always been a collector,” she said, from Waterford crystal to antique books. Her nutcracker collection started more than three decades ago.

“The nutcrackers remind me of so many things, especially music,” she said.

Music is in her DNA. She taught choral music for 16 years at her alma mater, Monette High School (now Buffalo Island Central). She also is a pianist and a harpist and gives private lessons. She founded a group of special-needs singers when she lived in Jonesboro, and that legacy lives on.

“You associate nutcrackers with music,” she said, referring to Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite,” which she loves, and the famous ballet set on Christmas Eve. “I love the story of the nutcracker, where Clara goes to visit so many places. The musical selections are so wonderful.” It’s no surprise that her favorite figures in her collection are from “The Nutcracker:” The Sugar Plum Fairy, which also is a music box; The Mouse King; a soldier; and Uncle Drosselmeyer. These are Steinbach nutcrackers, which are handmade in Germany to this day.

Steinbachs “are the Cadillac of nutcrackers,” Qualls said. “Their history goes back 200 years to the Ore Mountains of Germany.” When the mining of precious metals waned, miners used their woodworking skills to make nutcrackers and incense smokers to sell. The 28 Steinbach nutcrackers in her collection also include the mysterious, masked “Phantom of Opera” and the Three Wise Men.

“I love all my nutcrackers. I love the variety from the Steinbachs,” she said.

Despite her appreciation for Steinbachs, she is not a nutcracker snob. She has nutcrackers from department and hobby stores, florist shops or anywhere she sees one that strikes her fancy. “My fun, non-Steinbach nutcrackers give me a lot of pleasure and joy to look at,” she said.

The collection, which took her two days to unbox and arrange, also includes five antique nutcrackers, one of which she estimates could be 90 years old.

She exchanges nutcrackers as gifts with relatives, especially her son, Bret, and daughter-in-law, Mary Etta, of Conway, who has her own extensive collection. Mary Etta spent months cross-stitching a design of 10 nutcrackers on a throw that Pat drapes over a sofa table that was custom-made by a harp student’s husband, David Reed, specifically for her nutcrackers.

The nutcrackers displayed on this table include one that looks like the trench-coat-wearing Inspector Clouseau, Geppetto holding his Pinocchio marionette, a firefighter, Uncle Sam and a Santa. Her collection of nutcracker cooks, male and female, goes in the kitchen, of course. One chef holds a basket of baguettes; another has a chocolate birthday cake in his hand.

Her nontraditional nutcrackers include “shopping ladies,” which were sold at Pier 1 for years. They are approximately 19-inch-tall fashionable women, some holding shopping bags and puppies on leashes, and each with her own personality. “Aren’t they cute? I love my Pier 1 ladies, and I wish they hadn’t stopped making them,” she said.

Her tallest nutcracker is a 35-inch soldier holding a Countdown to Christmas chalkboard, and she also has some miniatures.

Qualls picked up a large nutcracker from the entry table. The piece has multiple smaller nutcrackers as part of the design and a banner that says “Nutcracker Collector.”

“Look, this is so sweet. They don’t make them like this anymore. See how detailed they are?” she said.

If her less expensive nutcrackers don’t have enough details, Qualls, also an expert seamstress, adds ribbon trim, fur and tiny Swarovski crystals or faux jewels to them. One table is devoted to 19 that she has bejeweled, which she has done so professionally that they look like they were created that way.

Julia Lansford of Jonesboro said Qualls gifted her a nutcracker years ago, which launched her own collection of 65 and counting. “She gave me a soldier, a captain, and redid his outfit to make it more elegant,” she said.

Qualls said that despite their name, her nutcrackers are only decorative, not functional. In German folklore, nutcrackers are supposed to bring good luck to a family and protect the home.

When Qualls was asked if she’d keep collecting nutcrackers, she looked surprised and laughed. “Oh, yes!” she said.

At press time, she was planning a party for a few friends to surprise their children with their own nutcrackers to decorate in her garage-turned-Santa’s workshop, along with a tour of her village inside. “I love children, and I love doing things like this,” she said.

Because her favorite part of her collection is sharing the joy with others.