Santas train for their big night

Santa is well known for his girth, yet somehow manages to circumnavigate the globe without fail every year. Come Saturday, around 4,000 Santa look-alikes will dash from South Pole to North Pole in New Orleans’ Warehouse District, a distance of just seven city blocks, celebrating the holidays in a fun-loving, red-suited way.

“We take into consideration that Santa can’t run that far,” said Bob A. Dauterive, Sr. who, as the event producer as well as mayor of the North Pole, will officiate in white tuxedo, candy cane striped tie and white fedora hat.

The third annual Running of the Santas is more like a costume and drinking party than an athletic event, he said. The 18-hour party basically moves from one location to another at 5 p.m. and revelers follow.

 “It’s more of a stumble-saunter with cocktail in hand,” joked Kelly Mitchell. Last year, she dressed as a Mardi Gras Mrs. Claus, wearing a red corset, red and white striped tutu and lace-up patent leather boots.

Running of the Santas festivities start at 11 a.m. at Barcadia Bar and Grill, 601 Tchoupitoulas Street, with deejay Ronnie Roux, followed by Funk Monkey and Flow Tribe.

Corey B and Jammer (B-96) will be masters of ceremonies at the 4 p.m. costume contest, sponsored by Saks, when media celebrity judges select the Cutest Santa and overall Best Holiday Costume. Judges include Bruce Katz (WVUE-TV meteorologist), Scott Satchfield (FOX-8 reporter), Garland Gillen (FOX-8 sports reporter) and Sean Fazende (FOX-8 sports reporter), Camille Whitworth (WDSU co-anchor) and Travers Mackel (WDSU reporter), Curt Sprang (WGNO anchor), Kelder Summers  (Old School 106.7) and Scoot (WWL-AM/FM). Last year, costumes ranged from Santa’s elves, grinches and reindeer to a snowflake and Christmas tree with blinking lights. The cutest costume winner was a sexy polar bear wearing furry boots and hat and not much else, Mitchell said.

The fun run to Generations Hall, 310 Andrew Higgens Drive, will begin promptly at 5 p.m. Naughty Professor will rock at 5:30 p.m. until Category 6 takes over at 7 p.m. The party will continue until early morning.

Dauterive spent 40 years in the airfreight industry working with trade shows and conventions before launching Running of the Santas. Through that, he met Matt McDermott and Ryan Van Laeys who got started running through the streets of Philadelphia in 1998 with a group of friends and organized the first Running of the Santas. Now there are 26 similar events. They wanted Dauterive to bring it to New Orleans.

“I’m not a runner. I haven’t run since high school track with NORD,” Dauterive said. But as one of the founders of the Greater New Orleans Athletic League, he knew how to organize an event.

It took about 10 years for the Philadelphia event to draw 1,000 participants, perhaps because Pennsylvania’s December weather is daunting, but the New Orleans event quickly reached that level. New Orleanians easily adapted to the costume idea.

“It’s New Orleans – it’s what we do here,” Mitchell laughed.

Two dollars of every ticket price goes to That Others May Life Foundation, which provides critical support, scholarships and immediate tragedy assistance for the families of United States Air Force Rescue Heroes who are killed or severely wounded in operational or training missions. After Hurricane Katrina, USAF Rescue lifted victims off rooftops, Dauterive said.

“During the days following the devastating storm, airmen from the 347 Expeditionary Rescue Group were credited with saving 4,306 American lives in the Gulf Coast region,” said Jim McElhenney, the foundation’s executive director.

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Family shows true meaning of Christmas

Photo by Eliot Kamenitz, New Orleans Advocate

On a back street in the Riverbend, a turquoise van pulled up on a corner where a building once planned as a youth center was now boarded up. Two teenagers jumped out and opened the back doors of the van while a pickup truck parked kitty-corner, loaded with fir trees.

Then a man dressed in athletic wear approached a young couple with a 3-year-old, handing them a tiny Christmas tree.

“It is wonderful,” Iriane Williams said of the unexpected gift. It would be the little girl’s first Christmas tree.

Cheryl Shaw rushed out of her house to collect a tree. Most years, somebody alerts neighbors that the trees have arrived. Then, everyone runs outside.

“They be gone, right like that,” Shaw said with a huge smile. 

Brothers Aiden and Ashton Harris jogged down the street to knock on the front door of an older woman who likes a tree.

“You never realize how much a Christmas tree means,” Aiden Harris said.

After Hurricane Katrina, their father, Chad Harris, owner of The Garden Gates, a Metairie garden and interior design store, had unsold fir trees. Other merchants told him leftover trees went into the dumpster, but Harris would not waste them.

He and his wife Beth wanted to do something for people living nearby. He has driven through this neighborhood on the way to work for 20 years and sometimes stopped to chat. They’ve given away trees almost every year since.

In 2012, Garden Gates ran out of trees and there were none to give away. So, this season, they ordered extra, Beth Harris said.

“For a long time, I used to do it so nobody knew who I was,” Harris recalled.  He left trees sitting on the sidewalk.

“You are the one been doing it all these years?” Derrek Bush said throwing a tree over his shoulder. “I really appreciate y’all.”

Now that the boys are older, Harris wants them involved in the giving experience. The family distributed 30 trees that day and the boys returned by themselves two more times. Neighbors brought out cups of hot chocolate.

“Everybody just pick them up so the whole neighborhood can have a real Christmas,” said Dennis Hudson who also got a tree two years ago.

Chad Harris buys Frasier firs grown in Sandy Creek, N.C. His business profits from flocking, delivering and putting Christmas trees in more affluent homes. Garden Gates will even hang the ornaments.

“This is way more fun,” Aiden Harris said about the tree giveaway.

Chad’s mother taught him to always give more than he takes.

“Even on my worst day, I am so much more fortunate than somebody else,” he reflected.

A little boy stopped on his way home from school, so Ashton Harris grabbed a 5-foot tree to carry home.

Across the street, Fernando Hernandez stopped his truck and smiled inquiringly. Though he has three children, Hernandez had not planned to buy a tree, yet eagerly accepted one gratis.

The Harris family believes they get more enjoyment giving away trees than the recipients do getting them.

“I believe 95 percent of people would buy the trees and give them away if they could see the looks on people’s faces,” Chad Harris said.

“I wish that I could figure out how to do this for a living. It feels so good to come out here and give away a tree.”

Twenty minutes after they arrived, the trees were all gone.

“Thank you, baby! God bless you,” a woman called, driving away, a fresh Christmas tree in the back seat.

This story first appeared in the New Orleans Advocate.