Back then the Macon Mall had just opened. Its first Santa flew in on a helicopter
The only time Eric Sizemore flew in a helicopter, he was so nervous the “butterflies” might have lifted him off the ground.
It was the morning of Friday, Nov. 28, 1975, the day after Thanksgiving and the start of the Christmas shopping season. Eric climbed into his “sleigh” at the airport in Macon, and the pilot carried him away to the Macon Mall.
Eric wore a Santa suit. There was so much white hanging from his chin and the sides of his red cap you might have thought he had fallen out of the helicopter and tumbled into a south Georgia cotton field.
Not many would have known him by his real name, anyway. He could have walked down Cherry Street in regular clothes and barely a soul would have suspected he was about to begin leading a double life as Santa Claus.
He certainly didn’t look the part. He was 36 years old with short, dark hair. He weighed 175 pounds.
He was the minister of a small Methodist church off of Rocky Creek Road. He was married with a 3-year-old son. His wife worked six days a week at a downtown department store to put food on the table and make it possible for him to attend seminary.
He had answered an advertisement in The Macon Telegraph recruiting Santas for the holiday season. Trying to make ends meet on a preacher’s salary had been a challenge. He often moonlighted as a substitute teacher in the Bibb County schools.
And, now, here he was, soaring over shingled roofs and the tops of pine trees.
South Macon had become his North Pole.
The Macon Mall had opened four months earlier to considerable fanfare. An ad had run in the Telegraph on Thanksgiving Day, announcing Santa’s arrival in the parking lot in front of the JC Penney Automotive Center at 9:45 a.m. on Friday.
“This year, Santa is giving his reindeer a rest and is coming to Macon Mall by helicopter,’’ the ad read.
So, Rudolph had the day off as Eric made his ceremonious landing to the cheers of hundreds of shoppers. He stepped out of the helicopter and into history as the first Santa Claus at the Macon Mall, at one time the largest enclosed mall in Georgia.
“It was a humongous crowd,’’ he said. “That parking lot was filled. There were people there from all over the state.’’
Eric turned 80 this year and hasn’t had a red Santa suit in his wardrobe since 1993. He still preaches every Sunday morning as minister of the Rochelle and Pitts United Methodist churches in Wilcox County. He and his wife will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on Dec. 20. Her name is Carol, so she is his Christmas Carol.
For Eric, his debut as the Macon Mall Santa was the first of what would be 18 holiday seasons in the role of St. Nick in Macon, Albany and Columbus. After two more years in Macon, he began the hop-scotch life of a minister in the South Georgia Methodist Conference. He received appointments and was pastor of churches in Albany, Columbus, Roberta, Colquitt, Claxton, Savannah and Tifton. He is in his fourth year in Rochelle.
A native of Gadsden, Alabama, he came to Georgia in 1967 when he was named band director at Moultrie High School. He also served as choir director at Tyson Memorial Methodist, where he met Carol, who sang in the choir.
He left teaching to become a seminary student at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta. His first appointment was a three-church charge in Helena, Scotland and Mount Olivet – riding the circuit to three churches in three different counties. The Sizemores moved to Macon in 1972, where he was minister at Aldersgate United Methodist (now closed) on South O’Hara Drive. The family lived in the church parsonage. For three years Eric commuted to Atlanta four days a week to attend seminary classes.
Eric said he responded to the ad for a seasonal Santa because did not have classes during the month of December and could work most weekends, except for Sundays.
He said he has “no idea” why he was selected.
“I weighed 175 pounds, so I wasn’t very Santa Clausy in the waist,’’ he said, laughing. “I had a little bit of hair back then, but not a whole lot more. I started going bald in college, so I wore a rat cap.’’
Carol said a representative from Santa & Me, in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, obviously saw something in her husband that made him the perfect fit.
“He has always loved kids. They are attracted to him,’’ she said. “When he interviewed for the job, they realized he was a good ‘people’ person.’’
Carol had to work the day of the helicopter landing. Her mother, Mary Whitley, came from Moultrie to take their 3-year-old son, Jamie. At that point in his young life, Jamie had been terrified of any man wearing a red suit. Even pictures of Santa frightened him.
So, it was somewhat of a Christmas miracle when Santa landed in the parking lot and Jamie broke loose and headed straight for him. He had no idea this Santa was his father.
“He told his grandmother, ‘That Santa has my daddy’s voice,’ ’’ Carol said.
Eric got a holiday workout over the next two decades. He smiled and patiently listened to the Christmas wishes of children wanting everything from Cabbage Patch Kids to Nintendo Game Boys.
There were times when it seemed as if every nursery school in town was bringing busloads of children to sit on Santa’s lap. (He regularly had to have his Santa suit dry-cleaned afterward.) And the appeal of Santa wasn’t limited to children. Some folks would bring their dogs. Eric said won’t ever forget the time “two drunk women” showed up to have their photo snapped with Santa.
When he would attend the “Breakfast with Santa” events he could never eat without the food getting in his beard. He once did a Santa commercial for a local TV station when he was in Albany.
As a minister, he has delivered countless sermons on the sacredness of Christmas and the “reason for the season.’’ But as materialistic as Christmas has become, he understands the importance of making room for Santa Claus, too.
“It’s great for kids to have this initial feeling of joy and elation in their lives,’’ he said. “Hopefully, they can later transfer those feelings into their spiritual life.’’
Ed Grisamore teaches journalism at Stratford Academy in Macon. His column appears on Sundays in The Telegraph.
This story was originally published December 1, 2019 at 6:00 AM.