Moore Park street lined with 45 giant, inflatable Santas

Santa Claus is blowing up on one street in midtown Toronto.

There are 45 giant-sized, inflatable Santa Clauses lining Inglewood Drive, each measuring a towering height of 14 feet.

"The kids go nuts. The babies going by in the strollers, pointing," says Amy Westin, an Inglewood resident, mother of three and the mastermind behind the army of Santas. "You can't help but have a smile when you see it."

She explains that it began as a choice between Christmas decorations: a six-foot inflatable Santa or a 14-foot one.

The debate landed on the 14-foot Santa, as a joke.

Then later on at a party at her neighbour's house, Westin wondered aloud, "Wouldn't it be really funny if you guys get one too?"

Before that Christmas season was over, a giant Santa went up on her neighbour's lawn.

"It kind of started as a lark," she says. "It just kind of took off from there."

Now the attack of the 14-foot Santas is more than just funny, it contributes to local food banks.

"We put a really nice spirit on it," says Westin. The neighbours partnered with Canadian Tire to donate to charity. When the inflatable Santas run out at the store, neighbours donate in lieu of getting the decoration, matched by the Canadian Tire.

Westin wants to keep things "light and easy", but is getting more coordinated every season.

"My husband calls me the Santa police," she says after she attempted to get all the neighbours to put their Santas up on the same day, so when children came home from school they would see 45 Santas hulking over the street.

Next year, she will redouble her efforts.

"I'd like to bring it to 60 Santas."