One in 8,700 - 12/03/09

Do you believe in Santa Claus? Thanks to Cliff Douglas, the children of Vermont do. He has been preserving the magic of Christmas, and sporting the big red suit and white beard, since he was in the eighth grade in Rochester, Vt. Fifty-two years later, he no longer needs the red suit for kids to pick him out of a crowd: his own white beard, the twinkle in his bespectacled blue eyes and his round belly give him away, and children come up to him wherever he goes to tell him about their lives and their hopes for the holidays.

“I’ve always been good with names, and I always try to remember who the children are from year to year,” said Douglas. “What a thrill it is to see them grow and tell me about how their year at school went. You can almost see their minds grow on a weekly basis.”

For Douglas, being Santa has always been about spending time with the children, and at four hours a day every day during the holiday season, being Santa is no small commitment. He has been Middlebury’s town Santa, the Santa at the Burlington Mall, Masonic Halls all over the state and various venues in Vergennes, and he has occasionally done private parties, riding up in everything from a fire truck to a jingle-clad horse.

“It’s been a good trip,” said Douglas. “You really get to see people the way they are. Some kids are all dressed up when they come in and they look perfect. Other kids look like they’ve come right out of the barn, but, y’know, kids are kids. They all believe.”

During his day job, when he worked at John Hancock Insurance for 35 years after six years in the Navy, he said one of the highlights of being an insurance man and traveling to so many local homes was getting to see more of the kids year-round. Douglas has always bolstered kids’ confidence and played games like Simon Says with them, and their children, and now their children’s children. That is what he will dearly miss when he hangs up the red suit — this year at least — because of a back injury in April that is still healing.

“I’ll really miss the children,” said Douglas. “I’m on my third generation, and more, really. I have four generations with one family. Doesn’t take long for the time to go by. It’s kind of disheartening to think you could get to the point where you can’t do it anymore.”

Even though Douglas has to take theyear off because lifting the kids into his lap is still difficult, his other hobbies keep him both entertained and close to the kids he loves. In addition to his Santa duties, for the past 18 years Douglas has also put on the face of Bucket the Clown, a Shrine Clown whom he portrays as part of a larger clown troupe in parades all over the country to raise money for the free Shriner Children’s Hospitals. When he is not clowning, he is collecting. An avid collector since he was a Cub Scout, Douglas has amassed impressive numbers of model cars, arrowheads, rocks, stamps, coins, trains, old letters and accordions, the last of which he enjoys tinkering with and playing in his spare time.

“There was a man who lived next door to us growing up — my mother didn’t like him because he had a bunch of junk — but he was neat,” said Douglas. “He told me, ‘Every day, you bring something home, and someday you’re going to be a millionaire.’ I collect anything I can get my hands on.”

As Santa, Douglas has received a lot of fan mail from children in the area, and as a collector, he has kept it all. Stored somewhere among the dusty matchbox cars and cases of model trains, Douglas has kept the many Christmas lists he has received over the years, and somewhere behind his easy smile and jolly laugh, Douglas cherishes those intangible things he has given — confidence and hope — and received — the hugs and radiant grins — that he cannot count. Yet even with such an extensive and heartfelt collection of memories, Douglas remains humble.

“I raised three of my own kids right — I like to think I did something for other people’s kids, too.”