Larry Jefferson has been putting on a big red suit and perfecting his best ho, ho, ho for nearly 20 years.
The retired Army captain plays Santa at shopping malls, holiday parties, and charity benefits. He hit the big time this year when he was handpicked at a Santa convention to appear at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn.
And by all accounts, kids and parents at the mall loved him. But when the story spread online, the negative attacks starting pouring in — because Jefferson is black.
Jefferson says the online negativity didn’t surprise him — “because of the times in which we are living in” — but, he adds, “that backlash was only a small percentage.”
For Santa Larry, as he likes to be called, playing Santa pretty much seems to be his calling in life. “That’s what all my friends are telling me, despite what the mean-spirited Grinch people are saying online,” he tells NPR’s, Rachel Martin. “They’re going to get coal … for sure.”
Click on the audio button to hear the full interview.
Santa Larry was featured in People Magazine on December 2, 2016.
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Larry Jefferson, a retired U.S. Army veteran from Irving, Texas, is joining the Bloomington, Minnesota, mall’s roster of Santa Claus’s for four days this week. He’ll be the first black Santa in the Mall of America’s history.
“This is a long time coming,” Landon Luther, co-owner of the Santa Experience, which has run the intimate photo studio at the mall for 10 years, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “We want Santa to be for everyone, period.”
Jefferson is the result of a year-long search Luther started in 2015. He was uncovered at a Santa convention in Branson, Missouri, where he was the only black Santa in attendance. “It was like finding a needle in a haystack,” Luther said. “He considers himself a Santa for all.”
Jefferson’s career as a Santa dates back to his youth: After his father injured his back, he took over the role as a 12-year-old, passing out presents to his brothers and sisters. After returning from service in the Gulf War, Jefferson dressed up for his nephews, who were sick and unable to visit Santa at their local mall.
He then matriculated through a leading Santa school and joined Texas’ Lone Star Santas, a nonprofit with over 350 Santas, Mrs. Clauses and elves who visit disaster-affected areas and donate toys to children in need. (The group has several Hispanic Santas and at least to Jewish members.)
“Kids only see one image of Santa,” Shanene Herbert, director of Project SPIRIT, an after-school program for black children in St. Paul public schools, told the Star-Tribune. “Even though he’s a fictional character, he could be any color, any race, any gender. This is an image of him too.” Herbert was working to fit a meet-and-greet between Santa Larry and her students into his busy schedule. (He’s booked solid over the weekend, and returns to Texas next week.)
Jefferson, meanwhile, has a Christmas wish of his own: He’d like to visit President Obama in the White House. And he remains genially philosophical about his mission: “I’m just a messenger to bring hope, love and peace to girls and boys.”
Larry Jefferson, playing the role of Santa, gets a hug from Olivia Major, left, her sister Mallory and brother Preston, of Blaine, at the Santa Experience at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. Photograph by Leila Navidi—Star Tribune via AP
For the first time in its 24-year history, Mall of America (MOA) welcomes its first black Santa.
Landon Luther, co-owner of MOA’s Santa Experience photo studio, was first introduced to Larry Jefferson after another MOA Santa met him at a “Kris Kringle reunion” convention in Branson, Mo., the Star Tribune reports. Jefferson, a U.S. Army veteran from Irving, Texas, was the only black Santa among nearly 1,000 impersonators. He’ll work for four days at MOA in Bloomington Minn., outside of Minneapolis, before returning to Dallas to work the seasonal circuit, according to the Tribune.
Jefferson will work exclusively for the Santa Experience studio (the alternative for kids is to wait in line with the masses to meet another Santa), where families book appointments for holiday photo packages. He’ll pass out candy canes and remind kids to eat their vegetables and always listen to their parents. Because, to Jefferson, that’s what kids will be looking for as opposed to the color of his skin.
“What they see most of the time is this red suit and candy,” he told the Tribune. “[Santa represents] a good sprit. I’m just a messenger to bring hope, love, and peace to girls and boys.”
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As he walked through the crowd of hundreds of bearded, plump and jolly white men, Larry Jefferson, a professional Santa Claus, stood out.
It was July, at the annual Santa Claus convention in Branson, Mo., which draws more than 800 Santa Clauses and Mrs. Clauses from across the country.
To Jefferson of Irving, Tex., the Santas at the convention were just like him — his “brothers in the red suits.” But unlike nearly all of the others, and contrary to most classic American images of St. Nick, Jefferson is black.
Unknown to him at first, there was a Santa recruiter at the convention looking for someone just like him. A Santa by the name of Sid went to the convention on a mission: find a Santa of color. The organizers of the Santa Experience, which offers photo sessions with Santa in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., during the holiday season, were hoping to diversify. In its 24 years, the mall had never had a black Santa Claus.
“He said, ‘Hey, if you want to work in Minnesota, we’ll treat you nice,’” Jefferson said in an interview.
On Thursday, Jefferson had his first day of a four-day stint at the Mall of America — marking the mall’s first black Santa and providing some Minnesota families with a holiday experience they thought was long overdue. One woman told Jefferson she had been waiting 25 years to see a black Santa. Other families told him they had driven hours just so that their kids could meet him.
“They’re far and few between,” Jefferson, who is in his mid-50s, said of Santas of color. “That’s why I do it.”
But when Jefferson first became “Santa Larry,” it was not only about representing his community. “It was a calling, you know,” Jefferson said. Once you’re Santa, you’re always Santa.
Late Thursday evening, a reporter called a phone number listed for Jefferson’s event scheduling, expecting a booking agent or an automated recording. “Hello, this is Santa,” the voice on the other end responded as if it were second nature. After 17 years in the profession, and nearly a lifetime of taking on the role, his deep connection to his red-robed alter-ego is second nature.
Growing up in a family with 11 siblings, Jefferson always loved Christmas, he said. One year, when he was 12, his father’s back was hurting, and he did not feel up to putting the Christmas presents under the tree for the family.
“I need you to be Santa for me,” he told his son. Jefferson gladly stepped up. He waited until his siblings were fast asleep before he quietly opened the door and crept out to the car to carry in the Christmas presents.
The news of his Mall of America gig — his highest-profile yet — has made him a bit of a celebrity. He has been featured in local and national news outlets and was invited to speak on the “Steve Harvey Show” on Friday. He would love to set his sights even further — “I want to go to the White House!” he declared. But not everyone has been so eager to change the traditional image of Santa Claus. As recently as this year, potential employers have told Jefferson that he was not the “particular fit” for them, he said.
“Some companies aren’t ready to hire a black Santa or a Hispanic Santa,” he said. “Minnesota has jumped to the forefront of a lot of states.”
Of course, in many parts of the country, a Santa of color is not as unusual. In Houston, Santa has been seen wearing a zoot suit and dancing to jazz in Mexican American neighborhoods. On Native American reservations, Santa often adds American Indian attire to his red suit, according to an Associated Press report from 2013.
That same year, a Santa controversy ensued after Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly spoke out during a panel discussion about a Slate article titled, “Santa Claus Should Not Be a White Man Anymore.”
“For all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white,” she said.
“Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn’t mean it has to change,” Kelly added about the writer’s call to make Santa more inclusive. “You know, I mean, Jesus was a white man, too.”
[Megyn Kelly on Santa, and dealing with critics]
For some children, it is still a surprise to see a Santa who looks different from the rest, Jefferson said. On Saturday, back in Texas, Jefferson was putting on his coat, about to leave a party at a friend’s house, when some kids ran up to him.
“‘Santa Claus?’” one of them, a boy who appeared to be about 4 years old, asked, according to Jefferson. “‘I didn’t know you were brown?’”
“I said, ‘Yes, I am brown,’” Jefferson said. “‘And Santa comes in many different colors.’”
“Oh,” the boy said, looking up at him in bewilderment, according to Jefferson.
“It’s always so genuine,” Jefferson said. “Kids are going to speak their mind at a young age.”
But behind the innocent looks of surprise is another sign of necessary progress in the country, Jefferson said.
“There needs to be more Santas of color, because this is America, and kids need to see a Santa that looks like them,” he said. “That helps kids to identify with the love and spirit of the holiday, you know?”
The demand for photos with Jefferson is clearly plentiful; all of his appointments at the Mall of America’s Santa Experience this weekend were entirely booked by Thursday.
“It’s hilarious to me. I’m really humbled by it,” he said, chuckling. “Everyone’s making a big deal about this because I’m a black Santa. But gosh, I’m just Santa!”
