Area Santas recall memorable moments

Ron McLaughlon of Eastlake has played the role of Santa Claus at many private parties over the past 17 years.

During the time he was Santa for the city of Eastlake, he recalls the little shed that was behind City Hall and the really high chair inside it where he would sit.

“We could see the cars pull up and I can remember seeing a mother and father pulling a kid out of the back of one and his mother telling him, ‘If you want to see Santa get in there,’ ” McLaughlon said.

The child had cerebral palsy and had always wanted to see Santa. McLaughlon recalls getting down on the floor to talk to with the young boy.

“He came back the next night and he came back for the next three weekends in a row,” he said. “His parents thought it was fantastic. I would get down on floor and talk to their son.”

He also recalls a time a young woman came with her grandmother to see him. The woman told him her granddaughter had always wanted to see Santa, but her parents wouldn’t let her. The grandmother asked when is one too old to sit on Santa’s lap and

the young lady broke down in tears as she talked to him, after he responded that no one is ever too old to sit on Santa’s lap.

McLaughlon also recalls a time when a young mother held out her baby to him, but the baby had messed himself from one end to the other. He explained that he couldn’t hold the baby under those conditions because of not being able to get his suit messy with all the other kids waiting to see him. But if she went and cleaned him up, he would be more than happy to hold the baby.

According to McLaughlon, the young mother got upset, saying how she had been waiting in line over and hour and a half and didn’t have the time to go back through the line again. McLaughlon told the mother to go clean the baby

up and when she came back to tell his people she was to go to the front of the line and that she wouldn’t have to wait in line again. He recalls how surprised she was when she returned and was brought right to the front of the line.

McLaughlon also recalls some of the requests he has received, such as a lady who once asked him for a new Lexus and children who have asked for horses or dogs.

He has a policy where Santa tells the children they can ask him for a toy, but no live presents. He explains how he would tell the children that a pet was a gift they would need to discuss with mom or dad, that Santa left the decisions on live presents up to their parents.

The hardest request he ever dealt with was the boy who asked him to save his dying mom.

“He came up to me and said, ‘I have talked to everybody else, my mother is

dying, can you help her?” McLaughlon said. “We talked and prayed together. Those are the ones that really get you.”

David Webster, while playing Santa at a Shoregate United Methodist Church craft show, recalled an elderly woman who came and sat on his knee.

“She was a widow, and she asked for a new man,” he said. “I said all the single men I knew were only 3 feet tall, my elves. She didn’t care. She just wanted someone

to have dinner with.”

Webster also tells how he managed to have many Cub Scouts believing he was the real deal when he would have parents provide facts about the children on note cards and the parents sit behind him out of sight and read them to him.

“I would ask Steven why does he pick on his sister Becky,” Webster said. “When one has 30 unique facts, the children wonder how Claus knows all that stuff. They began to believe I’m the real

one.”

Jim Sweeney Sr. of Willowick played Santa for many years starting back in the 1970s. Kids were a little different then, he said.

Some of the requests he received included a husband for one kid’s mom, while another requested a new baby brother and yet another asked Santa to bring a daddy for Christmas. Another child requested Santa bring a mink coat for mom.

Other requests he received including being asked

for peace, a new bike to replace one that had been stolen, a fire truck, a candy cane, an electric train and a new car for dad. He also received requests for the old standby basketball, football and baby dolls.

“Many brought pictures from a catalog and letters and colored pictures,” Sweeney said. “So many kids and so many wants. I loved them all as if they were my own, and I had three sons at home that didn’t have a clue I was doing this.”