Holidays
St.Nick
jolly old
How a Chapel Hill man became Santa By A nne Tate Photography by J ohn Mi ch a el Sim ps on
S
Steve gillham didn’t think
he looked like Santa Claus – for most of his life, anyway. And he certainly never imagined he would one day be Santa Claus. But then he got a call from UNC Children’s Hospital and never looked back. Steve and his wife, Debra Gillham, moved to Chapel Hill from Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, in 1996. When Debra, then a pediatric nurse at UNC Children’s Hospital, brought Steve to social gatherings, her colleagues noticed his short white beard.
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chapelhillmagazine.com
December 2021
So in 2004, it was clear who to call when the hospital’s Santa moved away right before Christmas – a recreational therapist soon asked Steve to fill in. He said “yes” without hesitation. Dissatisfied with the hospital’s Santa suit, Steve set out to find the perfect outfit. “I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness, these are the children who are in the hospital over Christmas,’” Steve says. “I didn’t want to show up wearing spats and a Walley World [from ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’] suit.”