ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 7, 1996 TAG: 9612090037
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: A Cuppa Joe
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY
Tom Williams says there are three ages of Santa Claus: the believing age, the disbelieving age and "You ARE Santa Claus."
At 50, with daughters 11 and 9, he figures he's in stage three. He's been making the most of it for the past five years.
He even has a checking account in the name of Santa Claus at First National Bank in Christiansburg. He uses the checks - which bear the address of 1 Reindeer Lane, North Pole 00001- for charitable contributions.
At the Fantasyland exhibit at the Roanoke Valley History Museum, Williams sits on the floor, shows his young visitors his hand-puppet reindeer (which they invariably mistake for a moose) and treats them the way a grandfather or favorite uncle might.
He calls it "quality time with Santa."
There's no confusing him with the production-line, smile-for-the-camera type you might find in a mall.
Last year, Williams worked with a team of Santas at New River Valley Mall. When his friends at the museum, Richard and Louise Loveland, asked him to come to Center in the Square this Christmas season, he leapt at the chance, "because I really want to develop the character."
He's putting together a wardrobe that will reflect Santa through the ages.
And he is extremely approachable.
Thursday morning, two classes of kindergartners from Fallon Park Elementary School visited him.
Santa Claus Williams talked to them a bit before picking up his guitar to play and sing "Jingle Bells."
Enthusiastically, the kids joined in, but their voices quickly faded.
Santa stopped strumming, opened a book and taught them the lyrics.
Before he could sing again, a child piped up: "Are you real?"
"Do I look real?" Santa asked. He invited a boy to pull on his beard. The youngster gave it a tug. The beard - 6 to 8 inches long, and white - held.
"He is real!" a classmate yelped.
Santa got ready to sing.
A child chirped, "Are you married?"
Claus paused.
"Mrs. Claus and I have been married many, many years," he said, patiently. "Are we going to learn this song?"
It's easy to see why this Santa is a performer and not a photo prop. He's a graduate of the music program at the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he majored in percussion.
He plays drums in the Sauerkraut Band, a Blacksburg oom-pah group, and guitar in Grace Note, a trio in the folk-New Age vein. Solo, he plays at weddings and parties.
His wife, Ise, is a massage therapist.
He also is the founder of the Indian Valley Retreat Center in Floyd County, a place devoted to mental and spiritual development, with a large emphasis on creativity.
Even amid the squeaking machinery, nappy felt and broken antlers of Fantasyland's vintage figures, Tom Williams puts life into his visits with the children.
Naturally, they respond. And that keeps him going - and going and going and going, through hundreds of kids at peak visiting times.
"It's not something everybody would be comfortable doing or want to do," he says. "You kind of have to find the amount of jolly-old-elf you need to be."
He picks a letter from the pack the kindergartners have brought to him.
"My name is Heen," he reads.
"Helen!" a little girl shouts.
"Helen?" he snorts. " Where's the L?"
He begins to read another: "My name is G-T-G-T-O."
"Gregory," somebody calls out.
Santa looks at him skeptically.
The questions keep coming - about elves, reindeer and even about Santa's parents (``They're very, very, very, very, very old'').
It's chaotic, but Williams likes this gig.
"I tend to be rather shy and quiet myself," he says. Putting on the red suit "gives you permission to practice being somebody you'd like to be" - and Santa Claus "is not a bad person to be."
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Tom Williams. color.by CNB