What would you do if a tall stranger with a fake beard taped to his face walked up to you and handed you a one hundred dollar bill? The new Secret Santa of Kansas City has seen all sorts of different reactions since he took up where the first Secret Santa, Larry Stewart, who died in 2007 at age 58, left of. Gasps of shock, disbelief, even tears have greeted his sudden gifts. Like Stewart before him, who gave away more than a million dollars each December to strangers, this Santa prefers to remain anonymous.
Recipients this year included a police officer with terminal cancer, a homeless man pushing a rickety old shopping cart, an 81-year-old woman who had recently told her 27 grandchildren she wouldn’t be able to afford any Christmas gifts, and Bernadette Turner, a 32-year-old unemployed mother of two.
“It’s hard to come by,” Turner told The AP, reporter who was following Santa on Tuesday, looking in disbelief at the $200 Secret Santa had given her.
Then one of Santa’s “elves” another tall man in a red cap, asked Turner a few questions and handed her another hundred. Turner, whose children are 3 and 8, was overcome.
“I can only afford one gift for each child. But now ….” she said, wiping tears from her cheeks and reaching out for a hug.
Like his predecessor, this Santa won’t discuss his own finances, or where the hundred dollar bills he distributes come from. He just fills his pockets with money, dons his beard and cape and goes out to spread a little much needed joy.
He will likely hand out about $40,000 this December. He says he’ll go “till the money runs out.”
“The recession, unemployment. This is the time you don’t want to stop. You don’t want to back off,” he said.
