Santa’s Helpers series: His numbers are legion, this Christmas figure and personality so familiar to young and old — merry, red-suited, white-bearded, bearing gifts, and ho-ho-hoing — but his intention is single-minded and, for these North Carolina Santa Clauses, single-hearted. They know their actual identities don’t matter, as long as they embody the true spirit of Christmas. Join us as we share the stories of eight North Carolina Santa’s Helpers.
“I really am Santa,” Warren Keyes, 62, says matter-of-factly. “I’m typically a jovial fellow, and Santa-esque all year long.” His goal — as Santa or in his day job as a customer relationships account manager — is to make sure people are happy. “There’s a mind-set that comes with this role,” he says, then muses — and chuckles, in a distinctly Santa-esque manner — “mind-set or madness?”
Keyes was first noticed as a Santa dead-ringer by a photographer at a wedding. Six months later, the photographer saw him again, at Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh around Christmastime, and ran Keyes down. Turns out the photographer was also a Santa “handler,” who became Keyes’s coach, teaching him skills, like how to slow down your speech and speak to a child as Santa.
While Keyes has been a Santa helper for only four years, something more important than longevity distinguishes him from other Santas. “I’m a darker-hued Santa,” he says gently. Which means that when he visits the Hayti Heritage Center, in a predominantly black neighborhood of Durham, not only are the children amazed, but their parents are, too. “Here they are, late in life, thinking back to their childhoods, when Santa was only white.” Now, people make the trip from Raleigh, Fayetteville, and elsewhere to pay a visit to Keyes’s Santa — if not exactly to sit on his lap, then to appreciate that Santa isn’t always blue-eyed and fair-skinned.
Travis Weil: Ho ho ho, look out below
Why does this Haywood County town have some of the cleanest water in the state? It’s the result of the community’s efforts to keep the forests in its watershed pristine.
The spectacular views in North Carolina’s High Country aren’t just inspiration for writers, painters, and sculptors. Those landscapes — the rugged gray face of Grandfather Mountain, the vibrant fall leaves, the deep green meadows — are brushstrokes on Earth’s own canvas.
The sprawling vineyards and wide-open skies that stretch for miles across seven North Carolina counties offer relaxing getaways — not to mention some of the state’s finest wines — for Sunday drivers aching to escape the rush of city life.
Nothing lasts forever — and that’s what makes many of our cherished moments so special.
