Santa’s silver anniversary: Christmas icon marks 25 years greeting kids at Empire Mall

Jill Callison

November 21, 2022

‘Twas six weeks before Christmas, but down at the mall

Excitement was building in kids big and small.

Santa is coming, mall staff reassured

The children assembled, eager to be heard.

When what to their wondering eyes did appear:

the Santa who’s been coming for 25 years.

That’s right. In 1997, Santa Claus made his first trip from the North Pole to The Empire Mall in Sioux Falls.

His love for children — and the adults who brought the youngsters to sit on his lap — was so deep he was willing to leave his home and routine behind for weeks at a time. Despite the quarter-century that has passed, he remembers well how it came about.

The late Don McLaughlin, then the mall’s general manager, had Santa’s private phone number, and he didn’t hesitate to use it.

“He told me, ‘The people in Sioux Falls have been kind of down lately, they’ve kind of lost some of their Christmas spirit,’” Santa recalled. “He said, ‘Can you come see if you can bring back some of the Christmas spirit?’”

Since he has a good crew of elves making the toys, and the reindeer get along well without him, he agreed, Santa said. And — to mix a Christmas story or two — his already-large heart grew three sizes larger, and he decided not to leave.

“I fell in love with Sioux Falls,” Santa said.

Sioux Falls returned the favor. In fact, Sioux Falls and other communities and individuals extended the love to one of Santa’s lifelong “helpers,” Dale Buxcel. In November 2017, Buxcel happened to be in Sioux Falls — let’s say visiting Santa — when his home near Okaton burned to the ground. Santa had asked Buxcel to store two decades’ worth of the letters and drawings and photographs from his young friends, and in a flicker and then a conflagration, they were gone.

The Murdo Fire Department started a GoFundMe for Santa’s helper, Buxcel , and raised more than $22,000. The Empire Mall staff gave him baskets of donated items, including Christmas decor, and one store even donated a new bed and dresser.

“He’s doing just fine,” Santa said of Buxcel. “He’s got a brand-new house, well, not new, but it’s nice. He’s happy. I know he lost a lot of things that can’t be replaced, but I think being around Santa helps a lot.”

Santa himself maintains the same spirit he has had over the past quarter-century. He started answering children’s questions in a newly restored winter wonderland last week. His Santa bag is magical, he will tell those who wonder how so many gifts can fit inside. The elves know exactly how to fill it so the presents for that house will show up on top of the bag.

Some of the elves who usher kids to Santa and take the photographs have heard the stories before.

That’s because they once were the kids who sat on his lap and in an ecstasy of anticipation whispered their sugar-plum dreams in his ears.

Tiffany West’s favorite memory is when Santa would read “A Visit from St. Nicholas” to dozens of kids assembled around him. West, the local manager for Cherry Hill, which arranges Santa’s visit, estimates she made a visit to Santa at The Empire Mall from the time she was a baby until she was about 12 years old.

Now, as she sees the children approach Santa, she feels their excitement as well as her own.

“It’s magical,” she said.

West’s 19-year-old cousin, Kenny Rose, also paid visits to Santa. He never would have predicted that someday he would be an elf. His favorite memory is when he asked Santa for a puppy. “I’ll try my best,” ever-cautious Santa said. It wasn’t Christmas morning, but later than year, West did get his dog.

On Christmas Eve, when the last child has departed, Rose expects he will be a little sad, wishing that the season could last a little longer.

Santa, too, may feel much the same. In 1997, when his time in Sioux Falls ended, he cried a bit, he said. Now, he starts going through the letters and photographs in late summer to build the anticipation. He hopes to return for another 26 years, he said.

This December, he’ll leave with new letters to add to his collection, though, and the photos that parents share with him. He’ll leave with the memories of children’s delight and of the sad stories that they whisper, and he never shares.

“Each new child brings a twinkle to my eye and a smile to my face,” Dale Buxcel’s good friend said. “Maybe I’m a bit like a therapist that has to listen to the bad stories as well as the good.”

Interview over, Santa sprang to his feet

And returned to his set with elves ready to meet

A new group of kids with wishes so sweet.

But I heard him exclaim, as he gave me a wink,

“Happy Christmas to all, I’ll be back in a blink.”

Santa’s schedule

Santa will be at The Empire Mall during mall hours through Dec. 24. Book your photo time here. Plus, catch him at these special events:

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