It’s Christmas Eve, my friends, so let’s put aside for a few hours our worries about the Patriots offense and Tom Brady’s elbow, our concern over the Red Sox prospects for the 2020 season, and our disappointment over the Providence College Friars slow start to the college basketball season.
Instead, let me tell you a story. A true story. A real Christmas story.
I met Santa Claus. Honest. And you know what? He loves sailing. Told me so himself. But first things first.
I met Santa in 2017 at the University Club in Providence. He was the guest of honor at the UClub’s annual family Christmas party. Children young and old gazed in awe as he sat in his big stuffed chair and welcomed them one by one to his lap.
Santa was round of belly and full of beard. His eyes twinkled behind his spectacles. He paid close attention to each child, nodding if they told him what they wanted for Christmas, probing gently if they were a little shy. He smiled for parents and grandparents who raised their cell phones and recorded the moment. As each child dismounted, Santa reached to his right, took a gift from one of his helpers and presented it to the child with a heart-felt “Merry Christmas!”
This Santa was the real deal.
I met him again this month. UClub. Family holiday party. He had not changed one bit. How does he do it, I wondered. Does he go to “fall training” to prepare for his one-month season? Does he practice his “Ho! Ho! Ho!” in front of a mirror like a weekend warrior doing bicep curls? I decided to ask. Fortunately, I know a guy (in fact, a gal) who shared Santa’s contact info, and I wrote him an email. He replied.
“As to preparation, I do not do very much,” he said. “Round is an acceptable shape for Santa, and I am somewhat round. No effort required.”
What about the beard?
“My beard is fully natural. I keep it trimmed throughout the year and start trimming it longer in August. I do not dye or color it. I am very lucky. I just wash and comb it. In fact, the beard is what got me into this role.”
Santa explained that about 15 years ago, he and his wife were entering the Emerald Square Mall in North Attleboro and a little girl held the door for them.
“She looked up and stiffened in shock. My wife laughed and later told me that ‘it looked as if she thought you were Santa.’ “
On Christmas Eve that same year, Santa and his wife were in the checkout line at an outlet store in Dartmouth, Mass.
“A small boy in front of us was acting up. The cashier asked him if he was worried that Santa would see him. He answered “No!” and jumped away onto a bench facing the cashier. He then looked up and came to attention, sitting there as if struck. The cashier and his mother looked at me and then started laughing. Leaving, my wife again mentioned that the child thought I was Santa. This was eye-opening and felt good and fun.”
The following year, Santa “played it up a bit.” He wore red shirts and a Santa hat and smiled a lot. When he saw an ad for Santas at the Lincoln Mall in Rhode Island, his wife encouraged him to apply. He did, and got the job.
“When I went in for the first fitting and first put the “suit” on, I truly felt something both peaceful and exciting. Those feelings still exist when in the ‘suit.’ ”
Santa told me that he has had a number of experiences in his 76 years, but wearing the “suit” is one of his favorites.
“I love coming into a room, and everybody smiles. The trust from children is amazing, and I hold it as an obligation. I do stretch the truth but work hard not to outright lie.”
When a child asks if Santa is real, here’s the answer.
“Do you mean am I real? Well, this beard is real (pulling on it), the belly is real (slapping it) and the glasses are real. So . . . ?”
Santa also says that he arrives by sleigh team, explaining that the network name for his vehicle’s Wifi is sleighteam. “Therefore, I arrive at events via sleigh team,” he wrote.
“So, most of my getting ready is scheduling and maintenance, beard and suit. That’s it. The attitude is on public display whenever I am in public, especially with children in the area.”
Santa told me this week that he makes at least 50 appearances between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Most are house calls, but he does visit stores and shopping areas like Thayer Street on College Hill on the East Side of Providence. He makes his entrance ringing a handset of sleigh bells, and the effect is magical. My grandchildren Wetherly, Paul, Sienna and Hudson were enthralled when he dropped by last weekend. As he rose to leave, Wetherly, 4, rushed to hug him. It was totally unscripted.
About that sailing, Santa started racing sailboats when he as 11 or 12 and continued until he could “no longer get around fast enough for safety and competitiveness.” At one point in his racing career he served as navigator and tactician aboard a Pearson 36 in Narragansett Bay and Buzzards Bay. He sailed out of the Barrington Yacht Club and Coasters Harbor Navy Yacht Club in Newport.
Santa remains involved in sailing as a Regional Race Officer and Regional Judge with US Sailing. His territory covers waters from Maine to New Jersey, and his duties include organizing events and race committees, writing correct sailing instructions and completing the scoring. He does it on a volunteer basis, his way of giving back to the sport, he said.
In a few hours Santa Claus will take off his red suit for the last time in 2019 and return to private life as Leo Berendes, a 76-year-old retiree from the financial services industry and the U.S. Navy Reserves. He will stay busy delivering cars for dealers. In the spring he will break out his boat shoes for another summer of officiating sailboat races. Then, in August, he will start prepping for another Christmas season.
One last thing. Leo “Santa Claus” Berendes and his wife Paulette (not Mrs. Claus) do live up north but not the North Pole. North Providence.
Merry Christmas to all!
