Eight tiny reindeer just won’t cut it for a modern Santa.
Instead of Comet and Cupid, Donner and Blitzen, Santa Claus’ fleet at UGA includes almost 50 full-sized passenger buses, four mini buses and 10 vans.
That’s because when he’s not checking his naughty or nice lists, the jolly man in red spends most of the year checking on bus repairs working as an assistant manager for Campus Transit at UGA. By day Paul Shadowens, who starts growing out his beard in the summer, keeps UGA’s bus fleet up and running, but when the holiday season rolls around he suits up and hands out candy canes to students riding on UGA’s buses.
He’ll do this for one or two days during December finals, hopping from bus to bus, trying to see as many students as possible. He said he’s gone through as many as 300 candy canes in less than three hours.
“It seems like every time I put the suit on something magical happens,” Shadowens said.
Students, stressed from studying for and taking finals, will text their friends—even ask for pictures with Santa.
And that’s exactly why he does it—to break up the tension and seriousness of finals.
“If I can put a smile on someone’s face, that’s what it’s all about,” he said.
Shadowens has been suiting up for more than three decades—since he was 24. He’s on his fourth Santa suit.
His first Santa job was at the Ohio Veterans Children’s Home. He then started visiting children’s hospitals and doing parties and special appearances.
In San Antonio, he rode the back of a fire truck with the ambulance going ahead announcing Santa was coming. In North Carolina, the Durham transit system adopted a family for Christmas and Santa delivered a whole truck load of toys, clothes and food to the family that would have had close to nothing for Christmas otherwise.
He has also made it a point to visit assisted living homes. “My biggest thrills are seeing the smiles on the faces of all the kids when Santa walks in the room—all kids, from 1 to 101,” he said.
Playing Santa was something that actually came up it in his initial UGA job interview. “Now it’s just become a tradition. Everybody knows. They’ve been real supportive of it,” he said.
Erycka Brock, a graduate student and bus driver, thinks his Santa is a fun way to bring the Christmas spirit to the workplace and said she’s wanted him to hand out candy canes on her bus routes since she found out he did it.
But it’s not just a holiday thing. “He’s jolly all year round,” she said. “He’s always very happy, even at 6 o’clock in the morning.”
Cookies and gifts are just part of his nature, she said. “He always makes sweet treats and gives them to everyone. He’s always giving presents.”
Shadowens has started his holiday baking: cookies, cakes, Milkyway pound cake and his specialty—cheesecake. He’s even working on his “Christmas Trash,” which is a mixture of cereals covered in white chocolate.
He’s known for going all out for the holidays. His toolbox in the bus garage is adorned with a small Christmas tree. He even adds lights to the bed of his truck.
“In my heart, I think everybody still wants to believe in Santa in some respect,” Shadowens said.
Since coming to town four years ago, he’s done Santa photos at local elementary schools, appearances at grocery stores and toy and coat drives. “It’s all about the kids,” he said.
But the undergraduates at UGA aren’t too old for jolly old Saint Nick. “They’re just big kids,” he said with a laugh. “Like me.”