Santa was finally able to sit down for an interview following a little bit of rest and relaxation after his long work week before Christmas. This is Santa’s 48th year of doing personal home visits, riding in parades, visiting schools, preschools, local towns, senior care facilities, and being a part of so many other joyous holiday events in the area.

In 1975, there were several young teachers at the Avon School who had families with young children. One of the teachers, Doug Barth, commented to Santa, not knowing his true identity, that he would make a good Santa Claus. That year Santa made the children and families of six school teachers very excited when he made a personal visit to each home to surprise them. Thus, a tradition and legacy was born.

Since the first year, Santa’s schedule has become very hectic during the holiday season with the last ten years being his busiest. Every year since the first, Santa’s home visit list has grown and at one point Santa was visiting 52 local families in the month of December on top of being a part of numerous other activities and events. That was during the time period that Santa would personally call local families with small children and see if they wanted him to come by for a home visit. Santa’s record for number of home visits in one evening is visiting 20 houses. Now if someone wants to schedule a special Santa visit, they just need to call Mrs. Claus to be put on Santa’s very busy calendar. Even though Santa is very busy, he seems to make time for everyone who asks.

He begins his visiting season the beginning of December and ends Christmas Eve. Santa has his suits custom made by Jane Blaha. When Santa first started his holiday appearances, it would take him about 90 minutes to get ready and dressed, but after many years of practice and ironing out the kinks, it only takes him about 20 minutes to get himself ready.

Santa has been a part of many events during the holiday season, including the Avon parade of lights, Tabor parade of lights, Tripp Fire Department pancake feed, Tyndall holiday parade, Avon craft fair, visiting the Good Samaritan Center in Tyndall, Spencer, NE parade of lights, attending sporting events including a Wagner basketball game, and visiting Sesdac, Inc. Santa has even had helper elves from the Sesdac organization help him at parades/events while his elves were busy at the North Pole making toys. Sesdac is a wonderful non-profit organization located in Vermillion that provides support for people with disabilities.

During the interview, Santa was able to answer some very personal questions that he would like to share. After Christmas, Santa enjoys taking a few days to rest and relax. His favorite reindeer is Rudolph because Rudolph leads Santa to where he needs to go (please do not tell the other reindeer). Jingle Bells is Santa’s favorite holiday song. His favorite cookies are either chocolate chip or raisin with chocolate milk. When asked how old Santa is, he say, “I am really really old”. The best gift that boys and girls can give Santa is to behave, listen to their parents and smile. Santa shared that what he wanted most for Christmas was for everybody to be happy and for a better world for everyone.

Santa’s favorite part of his holiday events is getting to be surrounded by the children. He enjoys seeing the happiness and pure joy on their faces from getting to see Santa. They always want to be close to Santa and tough his suit or his very real beard. Luckily, in all the years that Santa has been doing this, only one child has ever pulled off Santa’s hat. The children always ask Santa a lot of questions like where are your reindeer, Mrs. Claus and the elves at. Mrs. Claus is usually baking cookies. The elves are very busy getting everything ready including toys for Santa’s big night. The reindeer are always close by, but are afraid of cars and traffic, so Santa leaves them to graze in a field nearby until it is time to go back to the North Pole.

One of the best experiences/ memories for Santa would be when he asked to do a home visit for a family with two little boys who had just lost their dad to a heart attack. The mom had let Santa know the situation so that he could be prepared for some unusual questions. One of the little boys asked Santa if he knew what had happened to his dad. Santa told him that he did know that his dad had passed away and that Santa was sorry. Then the little boy proceeded to ask Santa if he was at the funeral. Santa was honest and told the little boy that he was not able to attend. It satisfied the little boy’s line of questions and he then went on to tell Santa that he had made a snowman. The little boy and Santa went outside to see the snowman. Santa was later at a funeral when he ran into the mother of the two little boys and she thanked him for that Christmas and told him that the experience was “the best thing ever done for my kids”. There have been many