Santa Claus lives in Pea Ridge

His Gaelic Scottish brogue breaking through often, blue eyes twinkling and white hair gleaming, Michael White personifi es Santa Claus, a name he says he carried legally the first 21 years of his life. And, his life mirrors the tales told of the Christmas fi gure.

He portrays Santa Claus nightly on the Fayetteville square. He is Santa on the Children’s Christmas train in Springdale, which is slated for Dec. 7 this year.

Children sitting on his lap ask him many questions, all of which he says he answers honestly.

“Do you have reindeer?” Yes, he had reindeer on land he had in Manitoba, Canada, land he says he donated for a reindeer refuge.

“Do you make toys?” Yes, he says he carves wooden toys.

“Do you have a workshop at the North Pole?” Yes, White says he bought a building in 1957 that was formerly owned by the U.S. Meteorological Center.

“Do you have elves?” Well, that answer is a little “tongue-incheek,” White admits, but still says yes because he worked with some Eskimo who were all very short.

“Do you go down the chimney?” Yes, he says, explaining that when he lived in Scotlandand traveled north to Inverness and the Shetland Islands, that the entire island is buried in snow.

“Only the old colonial chimneys are standing. The few families that stay enter their homes through one side of the chimney that has a built-in ladder.”

White, 81, of Pea Ridge, was found on a doorstep of an orphanage in Stirling, Scotland, not long after Christmas Day. Hehad no birth record and the ladies at the orphanage estimated he was born on Christmas Day so called him Santa Claus. He said he was not teased as a child because in Scotland, the “Christmas figure” is called Father Christmas.

White walks the streets of Pea Ridge often pulling a grocery cart behind him.

His white hair is below shoulder length and his beard lays on his chest.

All school transcripts at Coker Academy, Stirling, Scotland, and his fi rst two driver’s license in Scotland listed his name as Santa Claus, White said. He was adopted when he was 21, although the people who adopted him had been trying for 10 years.

“As we stood before the high judge,” White said, “he asked if I’d like to keep the name Santa or take a different name. I said I would take any name the couple gave me because it was so touching to me that they kept fighting for 10 years to adopt me. He said the struggle was because there were no birth records for him.

White said the judge asked the elder Mr. White what name he would choose. “His answer, I can still hear to this day,” Michael White said, “It was the only speech my father ever gave.”

“My lord,” White said his soon-to-be father said, “his last name shall be White, our family name. His middle name shall be Edward, like mine to carry forward.

And, his first name shall be Michael, like unto God, for we already know God has a purpose for him.”

White said the judge said Santa Claus would remain his legal name as well.

He remembers fi rst “playing Santa” when he was about 10 and a child younger than him at the orphanage did not receive a toy. He gave his toy to the the boy.

White said that after that, he realized that he enjoyed bringing smiles to others.

He says he worked for 2 pounds 5 shillings a day as a youngster, explaining that was about $1.50 in American money and that young people were hired because the men were away during World War II. He saved that money and used it to give gifts to a three-generation family living near the orphanage.

“The next year I did it for three families and the next year for six.” he said.

That tradition continues to this day with White busy all day Christmas Eve Day.

Last year he provided giftsfor more than 550 families.

“I may stop appearing, but as far as my Christmas endeavors, I’ll keep doing that until I have no breath left,” he asserted, admitting that as he has aged, it gets harder. “I’m often in the hospital after Christmas.”

One of the most memorable events, White says, was in the late 1970s in Georgia.

“I would take the truck and drive just past the driveway, take an empty box and put it on the porch, then take the items one by one to fill the box. As I was walking up the driveway, the clouds parted and the moon was shining down and I saw a man in the front yard with a shotgun to his chin. I knew I had to do something so I said: ‘Could you help me carry this? It’s heavy.’

“There I stood in my full red suit, holding an empty box … the box wasn’t heavy, but he helped me carry it.

He didn’t speak a word.

Then, he helped me carry everything into the box. Finally, when we got the box full, he asked: ‘What’s this?’

“I said: ‘This is your Christmas’ and picked up one package and gave it to him. It was a Bible with his name on it. Then, gave him an envelope that had receipts for his rent and utilities paid for three months and a place to begin working the day after Christmas. He broke down and cried … then he called his wife and children,” White recalled, saying that as he left, he saw the couple kneeling in the front yard crying. He said the man gave him the shotgun so he would never use it again. White says the man went to work, progressed in the company and now holds a managerial position there.

White was interviewed by Delilah on national radio telling the story of reuniting a young wife with her journalist husband who was in a hospital su◊ering from amnesia in 1967 during the Vietnam War.

White has three children, a daughter, Jennifer, living in Dallas, Ga., and sons Daniel and Jonathan, living in Springdale; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. He said when he moved to the States, the family - who he refers to as “the clan” - came, too, all 54 of them which included grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. He said they settled in Georgia. He says his children carry on the “Christmas endeavors” giving to those in need on Christmas.

News, Pages 1 on 12/04/2013