This year has been very different for many families because of the Coronavirus Pandemic. A lot of the familiar holiday traditions have been altered, or unavailable all together. One local resident, decided to offer up his services as Santa for those families who missed the opportunity earlier this month.
Johnny Kirchner, of Lennox, took to Facebook and posted, “Have a Santa suit, and am willing to swing by households Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or anytime in between.”
How did Kirchner come up with the idea? He said it all started because he grew out his beard.
“I guess it’s kind of a long story, but for whatever reason, I decided to grow a beard this winter. It is awfully gray, and I thought it kind of looked like Santa Claus,” Kirchner said, “Having a 15 month granddaughter, and knowing the first Christmas that she could be active and not be able to have a traditional meeting with Santa really bothered me. I decided to get a suit, and do pictures with her, etc. Fast-forward to a couple of weeks ago, and an old co-worker asked me to play Santa for his kids, and some friends’ kids. He told me he had the suit, and if I did it, I could use it.”
After that initial appearance, Kirchner decided to keep the Holiday Spirit going.
Kirchner reported that the requests came flooding in. As of the day after posting, Kirchner had 15 stops scheduled, from Lennox to Tea, to Larchwood, to Hartford to Chancellor. All the stops were made at no charge.
He said, “Seeing the magic in these kids eyes really makes me smile. The way 2020 has gone for a lot of people, I hope some of these families will take something good out of the year, and hopefully it will be a precursor to 2021.”
LOGIN for more holiday stories and fun!