NORWAY — It’s easy to do a double take when passing Harold Cote. The long white beard and twinkle in his eyes makes you wonder if Old Saint Nick came down from the North Pole to visit Oxford Hills ahead of Christmas.

That is exactly what the Norway resident hoped for when he began growing his beard roughly a year ago, about a year after he and his wife, Ginny, moved to an apartment on Main Street in Norway. A longtime woodworker, Cote picked the hobby back up about three years ago, and since moving to Norway, his landlord, Tony Morra, provided him with a small wood shop.

For the past year, Cote hasn’t stopped working in that shop. He clocks between eight and 10 hours a day, creating and crafting all sorts of toys that he gave out as Santa Claus late Friday afternoon at the Second Congregational Church of Norway.

Ginny and Melissa Martin were expected to be on hand dressed as elves helping Santa pass out his gifts.

“There’s so many little kids in this town that don’t have nothing,” Cote said. “I feel that little kids should definitely have a nice Christmas. The kids’ grins (are) worth more than a million dollars to me.”

Cote’s workshop and the couple’s apartment look like a miniature North Pole, as wooden toys — finished and in other various stages — fill the spaces. The toys run the gamut, including cars, trucks, airplanes, space shuttles, doll beds, cradles, dollhouse furniture, polka-dotted horses, pigs, rabbits, penguins on sticks, golf carts, plant pots, foot stools and birdhouse travel campers.

When Santa, er, Cote, finishes the toys, Ginny Cote stains them. There’s also a large dollhouse under construction, along with an entire farm and all of its associated buildings. Cote grew up on a farm. He plans to make another train set in the coming year.

And made completely of matchsticks are two houseboats (modeled after the life-sized ones he built in Maine and Florida), a large sailing ship and an Army truck complete with a mounted machine gun. The ship took him about a year to construct, the boats and truck took about nine months, he said.

Cote offers two simple reasons he decided to spend roughly $5,000 of his money on tools and supplies for his Christmas project.

“As a kid myself, I never had nothing. I grew up poor in Millinocket,” he said. “I never had it easy all my life. I like doing. I like to give.”

Cote was introduced to woodworking during a shop class in high school. It took him a whole semester, but the first piece he completed was a gun rack. He enjoyed it so much that he made sure his house had a woodworking shop when he built it in West Enfield shortly after getting married. But once the kids grew up and moved out, he sold the house and left his hobby behind.

Once he picked it back up, people told Cote he should sell his creations. But that’s not why he does it. He enjoys seeing children’s faces light up when he gives them a gift. He also crafts wooden canes for older folks. And he was hopeful before the toy giveaway Friday that it would go well.

“If this flies good, I’ll have a lot of stuff next year,” Cote said.

[email protected]