AFTER 40 years in the desert, Santa Claus was born again.  

The popular Kamloops Santa who, throughout the rest of the year, is known as Terry Rogers, is an evangelical Christian.  

It wasn’t always that way.  

Rogers began his seasonal career as Santa long before he gave his life to Christ.  

He was 13 years old when the neighbourhood Santa became ill on Christmas Eve. The old man asked Rogers to take his place – and that favour led the young Santa to years of volunteer work in the red suit.  

Decades later, when he retired from his position as school district superintendent, Rogers answered a classified ad placed by Aberdeen Mall looking for a Jolly Fellow.  

He got the job, and learned how to be a professional Santa.  This is his twelfth season.

Terry Rogers grew up attending a traditional church; so he knew that Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ. But he didn’t have a personal relationship with Jesus.  

When his grown daughter became a Christian through an Alpha Course, she invited her parents to join the last class.

It piqued Rogers’ interest – so he attended the next Alpha session, started going to church again and was baptized a year later.

After enjoying a brief retirement and exploring his newfound faith, Rogers took a position at Kamloops Christian School as CEO.  

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He told the school board that he would continue to be Santa for two months every year.  

But not everyone was excited about the new school leader playing the part of a secular Christmas celebrity.  

Last month, five years after joining the school, he received a letter from a parent asking how he could be both a Christian and a Santa.  

Rogers said he handled the question the same way he did when he was hired.

“I do Santa quite differently from the popular concept. Although many see Santa as a secular being, I view the role as a type of mission. I am able to convey to children and parents values such as thinking of others, the importance of family, sharing, avoiding greed, helping others and being responsible.”

Rogers begins his transformation into his alter ego every June, when he stops shaving and starts growing his hair.  By December, he has a full beard – and even in civilian clothes, he looks like the Santa depicted in children’s books.  It is so believable that one day a little girl from the daycare wandered into his office and said, “Santa, I need a hug.”

People have asked Santa Terry to pray for them.  He remembers a lady who came to sit on his knee, who asked for prayer after she told him that she had cancer.  

Another request came from two teenage girls who wanted him to pray for their school. “There’s not enough God in our school,” they told him.

“How did they know” he was a Christian, Rogers asked, concluding: “Maybe when we are at our best, Christians recognize Christians.”

Rogers has no plans to leave his velvet chair – especially now that it is also his annual mission field.

December 2010