Kind gestures to Santa come in many packages

Santa Claus’ generosity is a matter of record, dreams and a global incentive to be good.

This season, gifts are coming back to him all around the South Sound.

Now, everyone knows there is one Santa Claus. He runs a workshop and tends reindeer at the top of the world.

It’s a big job, big enough for lots of helpers. They carry his spirit in their hearts and his standards in their heads as they meet with his constituents at parties, malls and tree lightings. The main elf himself notes the kindnesses done to them as they go about his work.

One of those acts happened on Tacoma’s Hilltop this week. Santa’s helpers travel by conventional vehicles. George Eustice’s is a gold Buick sedan.

He had parked near Tacoma Art Place, a nonprofit where he volunteered to listen to Christmas wishes, read “The Night Before Christmas” and sing holiday songs. Candy canes also were involved.

The pocket where Eustice thought he’d put his keys was empty. How would he get home to his base on Vashon Island?

On the darkening street, a man dressed in camouflage stooped to pick up something glittering: Santa’s keys.

The man pressed a button. Lights flashed and the Buick’s horn sounded. He stepped close to read the sign on the car advertising Santa’s services, dialed the number and asked for Santa’s whereabouts.

The party was ending when he appeared in the doorway.

“You’ll probably need these,” he said, approaching Santa.

“Probably so,” Santa said. “Thank you.”

“We don’t get many Santas up here,” the man said. “I fell on some hard times and ended up on the streets. I try to earn money by working for some of the businesses around here cleaning sidewalks. I’m still trying to be a good person.”

Santa’s wallet was stuffed deep in his bag, but he had $10 in it.

“In my opinion you’re a darn good person,” Santa said. “Don’t ever let anyone tell you you are any less of a man.”

Santa, The Great Listmaker, asked the man’s name but let it escape from his brain.

“I’m trying to find out who he was,” he said. “He should be on top of the Good List.”

On Joint Base Lewis-McChord this month, Al Switzer, one of Santa’s doubles, settled into his big chair and noticed a girl who seemed too sad for the season.

Switzer’s wardrobe of 19 outfits has its own room in his North End apartment. He can go seasonal for the Daffodil Parade or cancer walks, but he’s always Santa with his white beard and hair. At stores, teens who look tough open doors for him and say “Hi, Santa.”

As daylight ebbs, Switzer, who repairs lawn mowers for a living, feels himself melting into Santa’s persona. It’s deep and peaceful there. In Santa, loss becomes understanding.

Six years ago, his daughter died of meningitis. She was 26.

“What would you like for Christmas, sweetie?” he asked the girl at Lewis-McChord.

“I’d like to have my daddy back,” said the child, whose father was killed in combat.

“I told her, ‘Sweetie, I would love to be able to do something like that, but I can’t. Daddy’s watching down on you, and I’m sure he’s loving everything you do. It’s a hard thing.’”

It’s especially so when everyone else seems so happy, he told her. It’s OK to feel sad, even at Christmas.

His honesty came from his own loss. His gratitude to the child came from the chance to be the Santa who knew she needed understanding more than red-nosed reindeer.

Throughout Pierce County this week, the red lights were revolving on Sheriff’s Department cars. Pierce County Santa Cops was flying solo for the first time after collaborating with Puyallup police since 1993. They had 112 stops to make.

There’s a lot of joy in getting, but more in giving, Deputy John Munson said. Recipients saw them not as guys with warrants, but as friends with groceries, coats, toiletries and toys. Detective Darrin Rayner, his wife and daughter met a mom whose four children, ages 7 to 14, took turns sleeping on one mattress on the floor.

“I went back to our North Pole and got another load of food and a gift card and made some phone calls,” he said. “We will be delivering two full mattress sets and frames to the family. The teen girl broke down in tears at the thought of having a bed. That’s what makes this program so fun and rewarding.”

Detective Tara Simmelink, her husband and son brought a child the first new coat she’d ever had.

“How did you know we needed food?” the child asked.

“We’re the cops. We know everything,” Simmelink replied. “Then the little girl looked up at me and asked, ‘Are you the real Santa?’”

Yes, child. These are Santa’s deputies. And you, in your own way, are Santa for them.

Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677
kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/street