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Santa sidelined by virus

News Photo by Julie Riddle Santa impersonator Bob Starnes III scans a children’s Christmas book at the Presque Isle District Library in Rogers City on Thursday.

ROGERS CITY — In November, Bob Starnes III shaved his beard.

In a 2020 Christmas, he figured, he wasn’t going to need it.

Watching news reports, Starnes figured he might as well clip the white whiskers that made him a natural as the town’s longtime Santa Claus impersonator.

As communities cancel holiday events to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, many children won’t be making their annual visit to Santa this year, and white-bearded would-be Santas like Starnes will have to content themselves with hearing the Christmas wishes of friends and family.

After playing the role since 2006, Starnes misses the red suit and fun of portraying the beloved folk hero.

Most of all, he misses the kids.

“But, you know,” Starnes said, “next year.”

Each year at the town’s annual tree-lighting ceremony the night before Thanksgiving, Starnes sits in a festively decorated gazebo, posing for photos and listening to little ones as they shyly confess what they most want for Christmas.

This year, that event was canceled, as was the town’s annual Christmas parade.

Starnes remembers some cold parade rides in the back of a pickup truck, waving at onlookers with his teeth chattering.

Once he dons the red suit, though, he stays in character, no matter what.

“You never know when some kid’s going to be right around the corner,” Starnes said. “You don’t want to dash their hopes and dreams.”

Older children are sometimes skeptical, and teenagers scoff at him, and occasionally he gets kicked in the leg and told he’s not real.

But, the youngest children truly believe, he said.

They sit on his lap and offer up their fondest wishes. They ask for Barbies or trucks, or sometimes they bring a hand-written wish list prepared in advance.

Sometimes, they ask him to help their sick brother, or to cure their mom’s cancer.

“They’re completely selfless,” Starnes said. “It gets you all choked up.”

Parents get in on the wish-making, too. Dads sometimes ask for a hunting rifle for Christmas.

“I always tell them, ‘You’ll shoot your eye out,'” Starnes said.

He works weekends as Santa at the Presque Isle County Historical Museum, too, but it’s at the tree lighting that he really draws the crowds.

“That’s where I’m a rock star,” Starnes said.

Arriving with fanfare on a lighted sleigh, the eagerly awaited guest of honor is cheered as he ascends the gazebo steps and officially starts the Christmas season as he lights 100-plus Christmas trees with the flourish of his candy canes.

Not this year, though.

This Christmas, kids won’t be waiting in eager lines or crawling onto Santa’s lap.

In some places, Starnes has heard, children can hold virtual visits with Santa or talk with him through a Plexiglas divider.

It’s a visit with Santa, sure, but it’s not the same, Starnes said. A screen or a divider may offer Santa, but it can’t offer the physical experience of a lap, and a listening ear, and the scratchy beard of a trusted confidante.

The precautions are a must, he knows. Even the sweetest young people can carry the virus to their grandma or grandpa. He has to watch his own health, said Starnes, who had diabetes and is in the age group most endangered by the sickness.

Next Christmas, Santa visits will be back, he hopes. Especially when life is full of change and uncertainty, children need fun, and they need excitement.

“Kids need Santa,” Starnes said. “They have to have something to believe in.”

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