By Anne Ruisi
The anticipation is high among the young children whispering to each other as Steve Pennington, dressed in a dark green and brown velvet Santa suit trimmed in gold, talks with a visitor at Circa Antiques in Mountain Brook Village. It’s almost as if you can hear them ask, “Is that really Santa?”
It is indeed, and within minutes, he’s sitting on a high-backed chair upholstered in dark gold, holding youngsters on his lap while their mothers take pictures with their cell phones.
“This is the chicest Santa in town,” said one of those moms, Mary Hayward Eudailey of Mountain Brook, here with her children, Edie, 7, Ashton, 5, and Robert, 2. “I like a non-traditional Santa.”
Pennington, 70, not only is wearing an outfit unlike what he calls a traditional red “Coca-Cola” Santa suit, but he also is working what amounts to full time between his job as a music teacher and his seasonal sideline as the Singing Santa.
He’s had stints as Santa at Mountain Brook Village since 2011, was the first Santa for The Summit when it opened in 1999 and has been a Santa at the Bass Pro Shop in Hoover and at the Riverchase Galleria.
More than 30 years ago, in 1988 or 1989, Pennington said, he was the last white Santa at Western Hills Mall in Fairfield, back when the mall featured a white and a Black Santa.
“My Santa brother was from Trinidad. We shared the chair” with hours posted for each Santa, he said.
That was the first year he grew a real beard, which now is luxuriantly white. In his younger days, he had to bleach the beard for the holidays.
Pennington had a theatrical background when he began portraying the Jolly Old Elf. He’d studied music education at Samford University and the University of South Alabama, worked for years as a music teacher and had been a church music and choir director. He still teaches music as an independent commercial voice instructor in all genres but opera and choir.
His first gig as Santa came in western Birmingham, where the owner of a private school asked him to don their Santa Claus suit and visit the children.
“I enjoyed it. I love seeing the delight of the children,” Pennington said, adding that his late son, Carl, who was about 5 or 6 at the time, didn’t recognize him.
Pennington played the piano and sang Christmas songs.
“I was a hit,” he said.
A promoter he knew in Birmingham started booking him for corporate events, where he played the piano and sang, and a seasonal career and his business, Santa-Singalong, was born. Eventually, he left corporate work behind and moved into bookings in retail shops, schools and at community activities, with a number of regular clients in private homes. He also set up a presence on the internet at MyPerfectSanta.com and facebook.com/locatesanta.
Recently he made an appearance at Bluff Park Elementary School, where the children joined him in singing Christmas songs.
His personal favorite is “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” which was his theme song when he was Santa at Brookwood Village. Other favorites are “Christmas in Dixie” a big hit for country music group Alabama, and “I Believe in Santa Claus.”
Over the years, he’s collected 28 Santa Claus outfits in an array of styles and colors, ranging from the traditional red and white Santa suit popular in the U.S. to suits in pure white, sapphire blue and even hunter’s camouflage. He even has a magnificent red cape that adds a dash of Old World elegance to his Santa persona.
Decorations on the outfits can be embroidery or appliques. One red suit is trimmed in white musical notes and treble clefs, a nod to Pennington’s musical background.
“They say clothes make the man, and in my Santa Claus, I think it does,” he said, adding that many of his outfits were made in Ukraine.
While many of his contemporaries are relaxing during this time of year, Pennington is busy teaching and putting in one Santa appearance after another. He appeared at 19 events during the first two weeks of November and by Dec. 6 had 54 more to go until the end of the season. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, he’d do 90 to 100 events, he said.
Portraying Santa Claus “keeps me alive,” said Pennington, who through the years has seen many of the same children over and over until they start bringing their own kids to him when it’s time to visit Santa.
The years have caught up with him a bit and he deals with what he calls “every old man disease you can have,” but Pennington said he has no plans to retire. He recalled his personal voice teacher, who died 18 or 19 years ago, worked into his 80s.
“I think everything I do disqualifies me as a ‘senior,’” he said.
For more information on Santa-Singalong, go to MyPerfectSanta.com and facebook.com/locatesanta
