Ron McLuckie will be resuiting for his second consecutive Nelson Santa Parade this Sunday and says he could be sleigh riding for life.
The 71-year-old says he was on the ‘nice list’ for the jolly role when he was approached by the Nelson Santa Parade Trust chairperson, Trevor Marshall, after erecting the Christmas tree at the cathedral with his fellow Whakatū Rotary helpers in 2022.
“At the end of it, Trevor said to me ‘hey Ron, we need a Santa for the Santa Parade, would you like to be Santa?”, and I said ‘yes, I would love to be Santa’.
“One of the reasons I took it on, and it might sound crazy, but my late father [Mac], had always been Santa at a lot of community events, and I could remember that very clearly and thinking that Santa is so cool - he’s making everyone happy and dishing out goodies.
“So, I’m carrying on the tradition. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and this year Trevor said ‘I think you’ve got the Santa job for life’.”
Ron says his long-term Santa prospects has meant making a list and checking it twice to maintain the Santa magic.
“Probably the toughest situation I had last year was at the end of the parade at Santa’s grotto at the Trailways Hotel … one woman came up, and I would put her into mid-70s, and I’ll never forget this, she said ‘could you bring my husband back, he passed away’,” he says.
“Times like that you don’t know what to say, and you improvise, you need to think on your feet, I think the most important thing is making those people feel very special.
“I just gave her a huge hug, and there was probably about 200 kids waiting at that stage, and I chatted to her for about two or three minutes saying, ‘he must’ve been a wonderful person’.”
Ron says kids have also approached him with difficult questions like ‘are you real?’.
“It’s a case of taking it with a lot of humour, a lot of empathy with the kids … and turning serious issues into happy moments,” he says. His Santa parade wish was the “biggest one that’s ever happened”.
“My hope and aspiration is that it can just be an incredibly joyful and happy time, bringing families together from all parts of the world,” he says.
“What’s not to like about making hundreds of kids happy? [The trust is] doing a lot of work to have the Santa float looking good, and there will be a few elves helping on the day.”
