He plays father Christmas for more than 50 years

Courtesy Of Ghislain Mailloux
André Saindon in father Christmas in front of a group of children captivated by a story.

Stephanie Gendron

On Thursday 21 December 2017 21:18

UPDATE
On Thursday 21 December 2017 21:23

Look at this article

RIVIÈRE-DU-LOUP | André Saindon has taken on the garb of father Christmas for the first time in 1966 in order to amuse his classmates. Every December for the past 51 years, he collected the confidences of the children and instills the magic of Christmas to the seniors.

This famous father Christmas in the Bas-Saint-Laurent is so loved, that he must make sewing a new costume every seven years, because the children sitting on his knees wear out his pants.

It appealed to him in day care, schools, social clubs, businesses, and residences of elderly. He still refuses to be paid and the fact of a good heart. The best pay is when an elder says to his family that father Christmas came to see him, and not that santa Claus is only “past” to the residence.

Tight heart

The nurse and director of care is now retired and has already had a heavy heart by the words of children or of events. The man of 70 years, remembers a 4 year old child who told her, in stammering that he was no longer wetting the bed.

“He wanted so much to please father Christmas, I had tears in my eyes. When you do the father Christmas, you open your heart as big as the panels of the barn, you ain’t got the time to close, the arrow is gone, ” said the grand-father of seven grandchildren.

Tame

The resident of Cacouna has also been successful for three years to coax an older lady who he had his back turned, she who claimed not to believe in father Christmas.

André Saindon was gradually tamed by taking the time to sit down and talk with her. It has pierced its shell in snatching him finally, a smile and a “thank you father Christmas” when he offered his condolences following the death of his mother.

He also cried tears when he saw the children with disabilities sing an air of Christmas. “They have done everything an effort, to be the same as the other “, he recalls.

Last year, to celebrate its 50 years to personify father Christmas, he has made 130 wooden toys and gave them to the children. It was his way of celebrating this anniversary marking, several decades after his wife Lucine had asked her to come in and do the father Christmas in his kindergarten class, an activity that has spread quickly.