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Luke Durant is now in his thirty ninth 12 months as Santa Luke at Mondawmin Mall.
Bill Chappell/NPR
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Bill Chappell/NPR
Luke Durant is now in his thirty ninth 12 months as Santa Luke at Mondawmin Mall.
Bill Chappell/NPR
Somewhere in Maryland, there is a mantel with a framed picture of Santa with a raccoon on his lap.
That’s the picture that involves thoughts as a longtime mall Santa tells me about one in all his oddest guests, way back, on Pet Night.
“They wanted to take a picture of the raccoon with Santa,” he says. “And you know, they love their raccoon. They brought the raccoon here. So, Santa took the picture.”
And that sums up Santa Luke — not simply any mall Santa, however probably the greatest to ever do it. He does not flip folks away, or make them really feel awkward. They come to him in search of one thing. And he needs to provide it to them.
“Santa has experienced it all — in a positive way,” he says.
His actual identify is Luke Durant, a person who’s a legend in his personal proper at Mondawmin Mall in Baltimore. Some folks drive for hours to see him. The raccoon story is one in all many you would possibly hear once you spend the day with Santa Luke, who’s on his thirty ninth 12 months at this mall in West Baltimore.
“I get phone calls in August, wanting to know if Santa Luke is coming back,” mentioned Romaine Smallwood-Faison, the mall’s common supervisor. “I’m like, this is crazy.”
Santa is on the set
Santa Luke — a star in his personal proper at Mondawmin Mall in Baltimore — has posed with raccoons, canine, cats, snakes, and reporters.
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Santa Luke — a star in his personal proper at Mondawmin Mall in Baltimore — has posed with raccoons, canine, cats, snakes, and reporters.
NPR
Watching Santa Luke deal with children and speak to households on a latest Friday, it is clear that he is a person who has a really explicit set of abilities. Kids’ meltdowns do not fluster him. He’s used to some kids being overwhelmed. Above all, he listens and encourages the children, telling them to do their finest.
“You have to have a good heart,” he says. “You have to know how to treat people the way you want to be treated. And you have to make people feel better after leaving you” than after they arrived.
Sitting in his large inexperienced chair in entrance of an immense tree, surrounded by decorations and enormous presents, Santa Luke waves and smiles at kids, waggling his finger for them to come back nearer. It’s been a gradual day thus far, with many children nonetheless in class.
One household with three children in tow makes it to the precipice, selecting a photograph package deal with Santa Luke — however issues abruptly unravel when one of many older kids begins to cry. They head for the exit.
“He’s a fast one, he’ll try running,” one other mom says of her son, warning a helper to not let go of his shoulder.
Santa Luke and his staff deploy props and squeaky toys to get children to have a look at the digicam. One little boy, adept within the mysterious methods of young children, refuses to smile until his mom lets him maintain a tube of Desitin diaper cream.
Smile for the digicam
Ken Lee, far proper, drove from Delaware along with her household to take images with Santa Luke at Mondawmin Mall.
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Bill Chappell/NPR
Ken Lee, far proper, drove from Delaware along with her household to take images with Santa Luke at Mondawmin Mall.
Bill Chappell/NPR
When it is image time, Santa Luke has probably the greatest on-camera double finger-points I’ve seen since Ted Lange set the bar (literally) on The Love Boat.
Photo packages with Santa begin round $39 and go as much as $49. But any child who walks by will see Durant wave them over. Because in the event that they need to come see Santa Luke — paying buyer or not — he needs to know what they need for Christmas.
Time and once more, he does this factor that appears like a low-key piece of magic. Picture a grandfather and a boy standing on the gate of Santa’s set, peering in. The granddad asks if it is OK if the boy simply comes as much as say hello — and Santa Luke offers a bit pop of his fingers and a factors to the child, gesturing for him to step proper up.
Durant’s assistants watch the little boy whisper to Santa about Christmas — after which he zips again out, grabs his father’s hand they usually stroll again into the mall. Versions of that scene performed out many times on my go to.
“I believe in what I’m doing,” Durant says. “And I like doing it. It’s not a job. I take great pride in what I do,” and meaning embracing folks, he added.
Tiffaney Parkman’s younger son, Kensington White, might be quiet round strangers, however he has no drawback telling Santa that he is been a great boy and what he needs for Christmas: “Numchuks” — like Michelangelo, his favourite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.
“I’m actually not from Maryland,” Parkman says. “So when I had my son, I wanted to know where Santa was, and everyone talked about Santa Luke. So I found the mall. I found him. So we’ve been coming ever since he was born, minus the COVID year.”
Also visiting is Ta’lynn White, a tween who got here along with her grandmother. Years in the past, she cried the primary time she noticed Santa. Now, she expertly passes alongside a request.
“I want an iPad, a new phone case, and slime,” she tells Santa.
How does Santa do it?
Durant bought right here at the moment round 7 a.m. He will not depart till round 7 or 8 p.m. When I took this task, I puzzled what Santa does on his break time (many mall Santas take a breather round 3 p.m.). Does he ice his lap? Wolf down cookies?
As it seems, Santa Luke doesn’t take breaks. Durant would possibly snag a catnap in a gradual spell, however he does not stray from his plush inexperienced chair. He stands up often, and he nibbles a snack on occasion. But he does not have something to drink, as a result of he does not need to need to go to the toilet: He cannot bear the considered a child discovering an empty Santa chair.
Durant largely stays in character on the Santa set, however there are hints of on a regular basis life. In the hours we spend collectively, I discover he retains a mirror in his boot, to verify he appears to be like his finest. He additionally has a cellphone, however he does not surf the online: It’s a classic flip mannequin.
When I ask about his each day routine, Durant says he drives to the mall and prays firstly of the day. He says he is by no means gotten a chilly or or different sickness from the children. He and his staff navigated by way of the protection measures required by COVID-19.
“Santa stays in tip-top shape,” Durant says. “I take my vitamin C and drink plenty of water and get all the shots, flu shots and everything.”
Durant has made headlines earlier than, typically with the concentrate on him being a Black Santa. But he needs folks weren’t so preoccupied with race.
“I’m a colorblind Santa, so to speak,” he says. “That’s never entered my mind to be a Black Santa or whatever — I did Santa Claus to be a good Santa Claus.”
I ask Durant how he felt to decorate as Santa for the primary time, years in the past.
“It made me real proud,” he says. “To wear this uniform — I don’t call it a costume, this uniform — you have to wear it with pride.”
Yes, Santa Luke has an origin story
Mondawmin Mall is an emblem of historical past and alter in West Baltimore. When it was in-built 1956, a diner within the mall was segregated. Now Romaine Smallwood-Faison, a Black lady, runs the procuring middle.
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Bill Chappell/NPR
Mondawmin Mall is an emblem of historical past and alter in West Baltimore. When it was in-built 1956, a diner within the mall was segregated. Now Romaine Smallwood-Faison, a Black lady, runs the procuring middle.
Bill Chappell/NPR
Kay Adler, 84, used to come back to Mondawmin Mall along with her daughter and granddaughter. Today, she’s right here on her personal — however that does not cease her from sitting on Santa Luke’s lap, her salt-and-pepper ponytail protruding the again of a ball cap.
“He’s very unique,” Adler mentioned afterward, praising Durant’s future as Santa.
“I’ve been coming here for years,” she mentioned. “And when he had his candy store, I would always stop in here and buy some peppermint sticks.”
She’s referring to Durant’s former household enterprise, working candy retailers on this mall and round Baltimore. And for those who’re protecting rating, sure, meaning Durant spent years primarily taking part in Willy Wonka for 11 months of the 12 months, then Santa for one.
To Durant, being Santa is an obligation — one which he tried to keep away from: He bought drafted into the Santa ranks 45 years in the past. Back then, he and his late brother had been operating a restaurant and membership within the historic Lafayette Market. The market had a Santa lined up for Christmas, however he give up.
Durant initially refused to play the half — however then his longtime enterprise associate, a petite white lady named Tina Trainor, made good on her menace to decorate as Santa.
“She was so cute, she had on the pillow and everything, and I loved that. I said, Tina, ‘I can’t let you do it. I’ll be the Santa Claus.’ And the rest is history.”
Mondawmin Mall is in its newest iteration
Mondawmin Mall holds retro parts like this spiral staircase together with escalators. Years in the past, this space close to the Santa set held a small duck pond.
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Bill Chappell/NPR
Mondawmin Mall holds retro parts like this spiral staircase together with escalators. Years in the past, this space close to the Santa set held a small duck pond.
Bill Chappell/NPR
Mondawmin Mall dominates an space between Coppin State University to the west and the Maryland Zoo and Druid Hill Park to the east. Blocks of historic row homes fill within the gaps. A bustling Metro station sits alongside the sting of its parking zone.
This mall has gone by way of various rebirths since its opening in 1956 — even its first developer was related to the time period “urban renewal.”
It began as an open complicated with a sitting space for folks to take a break from procuring. Then it was enclosed. Dozens of shops got here and went, from Sears to Target and Forever 21.
Walking across the mall, I’m struck by the way it’s primarily shifting again to its authentic identification of a walkable procuring village — a mannequin that is now again in vogue. The complicated, presently owned by Brookfield, accommodates a grocery store and put up workplace, simply because it did a long time in the past. New mixed-use building is deliberate within the area left by a vacated Target.
“Isn’t it amazing how life is so circular and it just goes around and we’re back to where we were?” Smallwood-Faison says. “People have this perception that malls are dying. This is not happening, especially in our Brookfield portfolio, because we’re able to pivot and make the change that will accommodate the communities, even if we have to go back to what we did before.”
Mondawmin Mall has additionally been an emblem of a few of Baltimore’s most difficult moments. The National Guard set up a machine gun emplacement here throughout the 1968 riots. After Freddie Gray’s loss of life in police custody in 2015, law enforcement officials in riot gear had a showdown with students within the parking zone.
After white flight began within the Nineteen Fifties, Mondawmin grew to become a house for the Black center class. That did not cease one of many mall’s authentic tenants, the White Coffee Pot diner, from refusing seats to Black clients.
Now Smallwood-Faison, a Black lady, is operating a mall that used to have a segregated retailer.
“How about that?” she says. A lifelong Baltimorean, she provides, “I used to come through Mondawmin Mall as a child when the subway first was created in Baltimore. I’m amazed every day that I’m running the mall. It is amazing.”
Today, Mondawmin is decked out for an enormous vacation procuring rush. Decorations dangle from partitions and ceilings, and shops look well-stocked. And whereas it won’t have a splashy anchor retailer, the mall has Santa Luke.
Smallwood-Faison says she lately spent a part of her day sitting within the Santa set, watching folks come for his or her annual photos.
“It just does my heart so good to see families of generations come back and bring their families here.”
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