Nutcrackers become Orem family's tradition

OREM — It looked pretty serious. Somewhere, during a battle with an overly rambunctious child, the little wooden soldier had lost a leg. His fancy red coat was peeling off in shreds, and both boots, once his pride and joy, were nowhere to be found.

Dewey L. Jolley handled the traumatized nutcracker gingerly, turning him over in his hands as he examined the war wounds.

"He'll be good as new in no time," Jolley said.

The wooden man's injuries weren't anything the 80-year-old great-grandfather hadn't seen before. After all, Jolley is, as his family and friends call him, the "nutcracker doctor."

Over the past 60 or so years, Jolley has breathed new life into hundreds of mangled nutcrackers. Some come to him without arms and legs. Some have lost their beards. Others just need a new pair of shoes.

"He's the best miniature-shoe maker in town," said his wife, Audrey, 79.

Dewey Jolley's love for nutcrackers dates back to 1947 when his wife purchased one of the decorative soldiers for him as a Christmas gift — well, sort of.

"I actually didn't care for the nutcracker much," Dewey Jolley said. "I just put it away in a drawer somewhere."

But Audrey Jolley kept on buying the Christmas keepsakes for her husband anyway.

"I don't know why, but I was just drawn to nutcrackers," she said.

It didn't take too long for Dewey Jolley to catch the collector's bug, too. After his wife brought home nutcracker number three, he was hooked.

Now the Jolleys have about 500 nutcrackers displayed in various places around their Orem house. Two rather serious-looking soldiers guard the front door. Several dozen peek out from among the books in Dewey Jolley's office. Hundreds hang out on a shelf circling the couple's living room.

"According to legend, the nutcracker possesses miraculous powers and brings good fortune and protection from evil spirits," Dewey Jolley said. "The more elaborate their decorations, the stronger their powers are."

The Jolley's collection includes everything from a nutcracker dressed as William Shakespeare to an Andrei Kirilenko nutcracker, complete with a miniature wooden basketball. Right now, the Jolleys are hunting for a set of nutcrackers dressed as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"I'm always looking for something different or unusual," Dewey Jolley said.

Over the past few decades, his family has started keeping a look out, too.

"We've got our own little nutcracker-finding army," said Audrey Jolley, as she pointed out the couple's latest acquisition, a penguin nutcracker holding a string of peppermint candies. Her daughter picked it out, she said.

Dewey and Audrey Jolley have started putting on an annual nutcracker party for their 35 great-grandchildren. The children watch a video telling the story of Clara, the Mouse King and the Nutcracker, color pictures of nutcrackers and eat doughnuts. At the end of the night, Dewey Jolley presents them all with a nutcracker of their own.

"Collecting nutcrackers has become a good tradition in our home," Dewey Jolley said. "I think it will keep going as long as I'm going."

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