Santa knows exactly who is at the top of the naughty list this year — the person who hit him with their car.
Donn Mason, a popular Santa Claus figure in the Norman and Oklahoma City areas, was on his way to see OU’s production of “A Christmas Carol” with his wife on Friday night. It was dark and rainy, but the lights on the crosswalk were flashing when he stepped into the street.
That didn’t stop the car driving down Elm Avenue that struck Mason as he was crossing.
“I cleared the southbound lane, stepped into the northbound lane — and this goofball hit me at 20, 25 miles per hour,” Mason said from a Norman Regional Hospital bed Saturday morning where he lay with a broken left pelvis and broken right leg.
The crash occurred just after 7:30 p.m. Friday in front of the Elm Avenue parking garage near Catlett Music Center, according to an OUPD police log. Officers responded and are investigating the collision, said Bruce Chan, OUPD spokesperson. On Saturday night, Chan said he did not have information about the driver of the vehicle available.
With less than a month until Christmas, the accident has put Mason’s decades-long Santa Claus career temporarily on hold and left the city scrambling to find a replacement for the jolly, white-bearded Santa look-alike.
“I can’t do Santa Claus for this whole month,” Mason said. “Which is a whole year that’s been knocked out.”
Mason, who makes a considerable amount of his income during Christmas, has already called to cancel 18 events that were scheduled months in advance. He would have appeared as Santa at Norman’s annual Christmas parade, STASH’s 2nd Friday Norman Art Walk and a variety of private venues.
Mason has been a fixture as Santa Claus in Norman’s Christmas parade, missing it only once in the past 30 years due to a health issue.
A stage technician by trade, Mason worked at the Nancy O’Brien Center for the Performing Arts for Norman Public Schools for more than a decade before his recent retirement.
But during Christmastime, Mason gets to mix it up, driving around to schools, country clubs, apartment complexes and other venues across town in a red Honda Fit inside of which he squeezes a 7-foot homemade chair that he assembles into Santa’s throne at every stop.
The Rhode Island-native first grew his signature bushy beard at 18 while completing his undergraduate degree at Rhode Island College, and has continued in the role ever since.
His favorite part about the gig has always been interacting with the kids, whose eyes brighten and sparkle when they see Santa, he said.
“They have total, unconditional love for Santa,” said Mason, whose own blue eyes twinkle like Santa’s.
One youngster who grew up seeing Mason as Santa at the Lions Club in downtown Oklahoma City, which serves children with physical and mental disabilities, was puzzled when Mason showed up to volunteer throughout the year without his red coat and Santa hat.
Eventually, she figured it out, he said.
“I know you’re really Donn,” Mason recalls her telling him. “But you make a good Santa.”
