The Shadow
This article was written by Matt Kelly for UVA Today Publication
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Santa Claus embodies mystery and wonder for children, and Randy Campbell wants to keep that alive.
Campbell, a zone manager for the University of Virginia’s Facilities Management, has portrayed Santa Claus since 2012, appearing at an annual Breakfast with Santa event at Rockfish Elementary School, after-school story times and a few home visits.
Campbell started as a last-minute substitute Santa at Rockfish Elementary, where his wife is a behavioral specialist. For his first gig, he wore a synthetic beard over his own patch. Campbell, who has lost weight in his 13 years portraying Santa Claus, says he does not think the children are concerned if Santa is fat or thin.
“It was just a Saturday morning, for an hour or two, and they gave me a fake beard that I wore over my own beard,” Campbell said. “With about 100 kids, I was there for a couple hours. I got lethargic because I was asphyxiating myself trying to breathe through that thing.”
The next year, he tried a different synthetic beard, with similar results. Then his daughter suggested bleaching his existing beard, which worked, but was tough on his hair.
“After I did several events, I shaved completely bare to get rid of that old, broken, damaged hair, and I usually keep it shaved pretty close or just barely a beard all year until August, and then I start growing it out, and I don’t get a haircut.”
But as his face began to look more authentic with his own beard, he was also dropping weight. “I’ve lost 140 pounds,” he said. “I weigh 190 pounds now. I’ve got four suits because as I have dropped weight. I’ve had to fit into smaller suits. I haven’t put any padding in yet, though people have requested me to, but I’ve bought a suit again this year that’s slim. I don’t know that kids really worry about whether Santa’s fat or not.”
Of his several Santa suits, the most popular is fashioned after the Haddon Sundblom paintings Coca-Cola commissioned for its Christmas advertisements, starting in 1931. “They all want that,” Campbell laughed. “I still have that suit, but it hangs on me like a tent. I would have to put padding on.”
As a father of four and grandfather of eight, maintaining secrecy is difficult. “All of my grandkids know me as Santa, so they’re in that breach between that make-believe Santa who lives at the North Pole and having Papa turn into Santa,” Campbell said. “So I have a tough time at school, because they tell their classmates that ‘my papa is Santa.’”
Campbell finds children are inquisitive. “They ask you about the North Pole, about the elves and about the reindeer, and I had to learn all of that,” Campbell said. “You have to know all the reindeer’s names.”
Anticipating questions, he brings a vial of artificial snow that expands with water. “I tell them that in hot weather places, I have to make my own snow,” he said. “I think the kids’ reactions have kept me doing it. I love Christmas, even from a young age. It’s probably my favorite time of the year.”
A deacon at the Hebron Baptist Church in Afton, where he has participated in a living manger tableau, Campbell shares a more religious version of Christmas, depending on his audience.
As Santa, Campbell maintains the mystery and wonder of the season for children. “I tell children about the reason for the season and that Santa was a good man and that he gave out presents and things like that,” he said. “But I only do that with those who I know that I can share that with, because you can’t do that with everybody.”
Part of the Santa magic is knowing the children’s names, and Campbell – who can trace his family roots in Nelson County back to around 1600 and has known many of the children’s families for several generations – studies before he makes an appearance.
“My wife gives me the yearbook from the school, so I learned the names,” Campbell said. “And that’s tough with 200 or 300 kids. But when they’re coming up on the stage, and you call them by name, it just blows their mind. Santa keeps track.”
As Santa, Campbell understands not all Christmases are the same. “It changes from year to year, and it’s the group of kids because sometimes kids are more wondrous,” he said. “They want to know these things. And other times it’s more superficial. And like I said, it kind of wanes like a tide. Sometimes they’re more about getting something than what the real meaning of Christmas is.”
