How to be a pandemic Santa in SC? Wear a face shield, bring joy — and pray for safety
More often than most years, some children’s requests to Santa Claus this season are a bit more on the serious side.
Safety for their families. A cure for the coronavirus.
At a recent Columbia holiday party, a child asked Santa for a new face mask.
“Other than that,” Santa — otherwise known as Patrick Faulds — said, “not much has changed. Kids are so resilient.”
All around them, though, much has changed. Little of everyday life, from grocery shopping to birthday parties to beloved holiday traditions, has been untouched by the coronavirus pandemic that defined 2020 as a historically difficult year for most Americans. Even Santa Claus.
Faulds, a theater professional at Columbia College, has spent 38 Christmases in character as Santa Claus.
This is the first year he’s donned a face shield as part of his Santa suit and the first year he hasn’t held children on his lap as they whisper to him their Christmas wishes. Even though the tradition looks different, Faulds and other jolly old men say it was important to them to keep the Santa spirit alive this year.
“We have guidelines; we have safety; we need to be adaptable. We need to show people we can be adaptable without taking risks that are too over-the-top,” Faulds said. “At the same time, I also think Santa needs to set an example. ... I think Santa has to stay a neutral ambassador for cheer and goodwill but also set a good example. We’re being responsible; we’re following the rules that we’re asking other people to follow.”
While the nation’s leading voice on COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has promised that Santa Claus has “innate immunity” from the coronavirus, Santa’s proteges south of the pole sadly do not.
In Georgia, a married couple who played Santa and Mrs. Claus at a community parade and took photos with about 50 children tested positive for COVID-19 two days after the parade, multiple media outlets reported. And in Pageland, S.C., a couple who were known for their roles as the Clauses at local holiday events contracted COVID-19 in August and died within hours of each other in September, Charlotte TV station WSOC reported.
“It has touched our ranks,” said Paul Nelson, one of Faulds’ red-suited brethren, who regularly greets children and their families at EdVenture Children’s Museum in Columbia. He wears a face shield as Santa Claus, and a clear plastic barrier separates him from museum guests, who wear face masks.
Like Faulds, Nelson prides himself in being a real-bearded Santa; he waited for years for his natural red beard to age to white. Now, he keeps it grown out all year, pleasing kids who spot him in restaurants or spy him winking from around a corner.
“If you wear the full white beard, you’re Santa Claus all year round,” Nelson said. “It’s just a way of life.”
A semi-retired paramedic by trade, Nelson takes the health risks of COVID-19 as seriously as he takes his Santa duties. His wife, Myra — Mrs. Claus — works in cardiology at Prisma Health. As soon as the coronavirus took hold of the community, they began thinking about their roles as the Clauses.
Faulds started discussing his Santa duties as early as spring or summer with his doctor, his regular clients and his family, including his daughter and son-in-law, who are medical professionals.
After all, “most Santas are in the high-risk category” for COVID-19, Faulds said. “They’re older men, maybe a little overweight, and have all the risks that come with that in a normal year.”
But with abundant precautions factored into the equation, these Santas calculated that the risks were outweighed by the rewards.
Faulds said that unlike most years, he hasn’t had so much as a runny nose so far this season, he believes thanks to his new safety guidelines.
“We just try to be safe, do the right things and pray a lot,” Nelson said. “And we look forward to next year when things get back to normal.”
Magic in the midst of fear
Where does a holly, jolly, mythical character like Santa even fit into a world saturated by online shopping and same-day shipping, never-ending screen time and a ceaseless stream of glum news?
“What Santa means to kids today? I think he’s just that commercial thing that’s been sold to them. But most of the kids really want to believe,” Nelson said. “And golly, in today’s time when everything is so unsure, unstable, and the scary stuff with corona, I think having that faith in something that cares about them and wants to do something for them matters.”
It matters to Santa, too.
Nelson was inspired by a friend and mentor of his, who portrayed Santa to his own son, Christopher, decades ago. As the boy grew older, Santa said to him, “People who don’t believe can’t see me. Santa Claus is a spirit. It’s a belief. It has gone on for centuries, and it will go on for centuries. ... I’m not the only one. I embody that spirit.”
“I think that’s what got into me,” Nelson said.
It was important to keep that very same spirit alive this year even as plans for holiday activities shifted day by day at the S.C. State Museum, where Santa Claus is a major attraction each year.
“Kids of all ages love Santa. It’s just magical for them,” said Lydia Salais, programs manager at the S.C. State Museum, where Faulds has spent Saturday afternoons since Thanksgiving telling tales of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and performing Santa magic for wide-eyed, masked children who sit at his feet, spaced 6 feet apart from one another.
“It was really important to bring something that’s so traditional, even if we were going to have to do it a different way — to still experience some sort of personal interaction with Santa, even if it’s going to be different,” Salais said. “It’s some sort of normalcy. It’s still the Christmas spirit.”
For Nelson, the most abnormal and difficult part of adapting his Santa role with pandemic precautions has been keeping a safe physical distance from the children.
“We can’t hold the kids. I can’t hug them. And that’s actually made several of the kids cry. ... When you hold them back and they start crying, it just breaks my heart,” Nelson said. “For my wife and I, that’s really hard, because we just live all year long to hold the kids and love on them. We’re grandparents. We just miss the kids.”
Faulds has had to give up some of his normal Santa appearances, most notably in children’s hospitals — “I can’t see the kids that really need Santa to see them,” he said. And the Nelsons have had to forego their nursing home visits.
But in the next week before Christmas, the Nelsons will take portraits with visitors at EdVenture Children’s Museum and make rounds at local hospitals, making special effort to encourage hospital staff.
Faulds will make appearances at the State Museum, Riverbanks Zoo and some family homes; he’ll greet children at a day care through the window panes; and he’ll make his annual visit to a residential facility for adolescents dealing with substance abuse.
Normally, on Christmas Eve, Faulds would don his red suit and set out on a route of planned home visits, surprising little ones who had gone to bed and awoke to the sound of his jingle bells.
“I adore those,” he said.
Those surprise Santa visits, however, just aren’t practical in this pandemic year, Faulds said.
So for the first time in many years, Faulds will spend this Christmas Eve with his own family — “How new for me!” he said.
