Yes, thats me. Here is how it happened....
A break in a Council meeting. A small gathering the Mayor's office. The Mayor asks Peter Milobar and me "so, which one of you is playing Santa tonight at the seniors light tour". I reply, "thats your job, your jollyness". The Mayor replies "look, I am too short and the pillow falls out too easy". Milobar quickly demurs, saying his put his time in already, having been Santa for various Christmas parties. That Milobar doesn't miss a beat, while I stand a litle stunned and obviously, so far, silent - as I watch all eyes turn towards me.
I am between an candycane and a gingerbread latte. And I hear myself say "Ok, I'll do it".
WHAT? I have never ever conceived that I would ever play Santa. What a responsibility. I have never been a costume kind of guy. And, besides, isn't Santa white?
The Mayor turns his door, and I take the hallowed suit off the hook. I take it home. I tell my wife. It took a while to get her to stop the guffaws.
The annointed time approached. I start to transform myself: red furry track pants - check, red coat - check, long stringy white wig - check, long stringy white elastic beard and mustache - check, pull on black boots - check, round blurry eyeglasses - check, black gloves - check.
Only issue, I don't figure out the white stripe on the coat should be in front, and not down my back. Turns out this a relatively big issue.
I enter the arena from an ice level with my elves - Terry and Tina. Almost 800 seniors are already sitting around tables, listening the Old Time Fiddlers play classic Christmas tunes. They turn, they definitely notice the stripe placement, but they are still very friendly.
My other elf - named Pat - helped me navigate the tables - the oldest people in the room seemed the happiest to see this Santa. The excitement in their eyes made it all truly worthwhile. Surprisingly, some people asked Santa if his dad was "the doctor".
I was really glad to be part of this great Kamloops tradition.
PS...Thanks to my techie elf John, who took the above photo with his fancy cell phone.
Two thumbs up for Arjun... just too funny...
P.S.
Good call on the security hike on malicious posters etc. however you may want to use color letters as is very difficult to see I had to be about 2 inches away from my monitor to recognize what the letters were just a thought.
Posted by: Colin Dyke | December 22, 2006 at 03:12 AM