30 jolly Santas and Mrs. Clauses are in KC this weekend. Why they may make you cry

09/10/25 at 03:00 AM

30 jolly Santas and Mrs. Clauses are in KC this weekend. Why they may make you cry 
The Kansas City Star; by Eric Adler; 9/6/25 
On Friday morning, inside a convention room at the Hotel Savoy in Kansas City, Santa pulled up a chair to tell a story or two about some of the children, and even adults, he'd visited to bring a last moment of joy. As he spoke, some 21 other Santas, elves and eight Mrs. Clauses from Kansas, Louisiana, Idaho, Wisconsin, some 13 states took to other tables with coffee and muffins for a Santa America symposium about to begin. ... "The difference going in," said Boydston, the nonprofit's current president, "we know what we're going into. We know this is a terminal child. This may be the last time a family gets a smile. This may be the last happy moment." Or maybe it's a visit to a parent who is in hospice, leaving a child behind. ... In those sensitive moments when it doesn't - or for sensitive children - these Santas show up, often at their homes: For a sick child, for a dying child, for grieving children or even worried children whose parent, in the military, may be headed off for deployment. ...

Back to Literature Review