City to Honor a Santa Who Children Can Believe In
Max Townsend has played Santa for 47 years—through heart attacks, a quadruple bypass and a Pacemaker surgery.
The end of the holiday season is always a little sad for Max Townsend as he puts away his Santa suit for another year. It was nearly 50 years ago that he first rented a $9 Santa suit and visited a group home for special needs kids. Now, Townsend visits children in hospitals, churches, schools, homes, orphanages each year. And for the last few years he has been a staple at the annual Yorkville Holiday Under the Stars event. “A high school buddy of mine had a cousin there and he said, ‘I think you’d make a good Santa Claus,’” said Townsend, of Stickney. “I still have the suit in my closet.” He found he enjoyed playing Santa so much that once he got out of the service a few years later, he decided to make it a holiday ritual. And he takes his…
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Jen Slepicka
7:00 am on Monday, January 9, 2012
BEST SANTA EVER. He makes me believe. What a great soul. more ›