Giving family shows holiday spirit as mall Santa recovers from theft

Ever since she was old enough to speak, Abrielle Fonder has told Santa Claus what she wants for Christmas.

This year, the 10-year-old Sioux Falls girl made St. Nick’s Christmas wish come true.

See, Santa had had an unfortunate expedience with someone who earned a spot on the naughty list earlier in the week. As his Empire Mall stand-in, Dale Buxcel, posted on his Facebook page Wednesday morning, someone had broken into his dressing room at the mall and taken his Santa bag. In that bag were his wallet, which held his driver’s license and credit cards, and his cellphone.

If anyone needed to reach him, Buxcel wrote, they would need to call the mall office or his sisters.

By Wednesday evening, however, the cellphone had been replaced.

Abrielle put it in his hands herself, sitting next to him and watching while Santa sniffed the gift-wrapped package to determine whether it held cookies.

A new iPhone 15 might not be as tasty as a frosted sugar cookie, but in a world where cellphones have become essential, the impact of Abrielle’s gift will last much longer.

“A lot of people’s telephones are their lifelines,” said Abrielle’s father, Mark Fonder, who read about Santa’s predicament on his way back home from a trip to Nashville.

Fonder said he felt devastated when he read about Santa’s plight.

“The credit cards can be canceled and everything else like the driver’s license replaced,” he said.

But a telephone with all the contact information and photographs? Especially when the substitute Santa lives in Murdo and will need to travel home soon? Not good at all.

So Fonder began to brainstorm what he could do to help. He knew immediately that he would involve his daughter, a fourth-grader at Sioux Falls Christian.

Fonder, who owns the restaurants The Barrel House and Krav’n, has made an impact on Sioux Falls in multiple charitable ways, including founding the nonprofit Hungry Hearts seven years ago. He has pledged up to $100,000 in matching funds this school year to pay school lunch bills for low-income students.

“Kids are the future,” Fonder said. “I just think we can instill good habits and taking care of everyone if you can.”

Abrielle understands that. As she outgrows her clothing, she sorts through the items to determine what can be donated to The Foster Network.

On Wednesday, when her father told her what had happened to Santa Claus, Abrielle felt a personal connection. She knows the mall Santa is a substitute for the real Kris Kringle, but Abrielle has visited him every year since she was a baby.

“She was excited to do it,” Fonder said “She came to me afterwards and said he started crying.” Fonder posted a video of the gift-giving on his Facebook page, and it has been shared and liked hundreds of times since then.

While hearing of the theft of Santa’s bag discouraged him, Fonder won’t let it squash his holiday spirit.

“I didn’t post the video to get in front of the news or anything else,” he said. “We just did it to do it. It’s an overall good holiday spirit, and one I think people feel the heartfelt meaning of it. It’s just a little bit of teaching, and it feels good to turn something bad into something good.”

Neither Buxcel nor Empire Mall officials responded to requests for comment.

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