As the holiday season rapidly approaches, many children around the area are eagerly awaiting the return of a certain jolly man in a red suit. Young people everywhere have already carefully constructed their Christmas lists, at least one of which is addressed to the North Pole. Santa Claus is to Christmas what fireworks are to the 4th of July. You simply can’t have one without the other.

We all have had experiences with Santa, but how many of us have stopped to wonder about the man behind the beard. It takes a special person to keep the “ho-ho-ho” sounding enthusiastically merry hour after hour, day after day. Not all of us would be able to pull it off. Fortunately, there are people like Jay Taylor that are more than willing to devote their time to make Christmas extra special for our area young people.

2015 will be Jay’s third year manning the big red chair. “My friend Randy Long had been bugging me for years to let my beard grow out and become Santa for him at the mall,” Jay explained. “I was reluctant to grow it out because I was actively working with patients at Sanford.” Long, owner of the Fargo Entertainment Company persisted, and Jay finally gave in. He has been taking children’s Christmas wishes ever since. Not everyone loves his holiday look, however. “My wife doesn’t like the beard and gleefully shaves it off of me late on Christmas Eve,” Jay said.

For Jay, it is all about the children. “I love seeing happy, healthy kids,” he said. “My favorite moment is when they round the corner, their eyes open wide, and they run to me with their arms open wide and scream, ‘Santa.’ I get chills every time it happens.” The only challenge Jay encounters each year is the beard growing process. “This year, I started on July 1st,” he said. “Randy will only use naturally grown beards. It’s all part of what he calls ‘The Santa Experience’.”

One may wonder if Santa Jay ever gets any requests or questions that are difficult to deal with. “We always try to answer any question that kids have and we do our best to tell the truth; although not all requests are easy,” he began. “Some kids want Dad or Mom to come home from overseas and I've had a couple that have asked for cures for diseases that they are experiencing or that friends and family are going through. The only thing I can say is, ‘I'll do the best I can’.”

Jay is only Santa Claus for six plus weeks a year, but what about the other 46? Who exactly is Jay Taylor?

Jay was born in Chicago and enjoyed a fulfilling career as a Respiratory Therapist before retiring from Sanford Hospital in 2013. “I wore all the hats, from staff therapist to manager of my own department,” he explained. “We (RTs) have always been a big part of emergency medicine, code blues, and trauma codes, with the responsibility of establishing an airway.” Jay’s wife is a retired clinical nurse that currently works as a pet sitter.

Jay is also an experienced actor and musician. “I've been involved in theatre, acting, and music since my first role in kindergarten,” he said. “No looking back after that.” At one point, Jay went on the road as a musician with his brother. “We worked lounges all over the country performing anything from Irish Folk music to country, bluegrass and 50's rock and roll,” he explained. “One of our bookings brought us twice to North Dakota where I met my wife and fell in love both with her and North Dakota.”

Jay left the road in 1982 and has called the Red River Valley home ever since. “Since I've been in Fargo, I've worked with Randy Long and the Fargo Entertainment Company performing in murder mysteries and acting as anything from Elvis Presley to Santa Claus,” Jay explained. “I also worked on many shows with Fargo Moorhead Community Theatre (FMCT) and Tin Roof Theatre.”

As part of Jay’s work as a RT, he helped establish the tobacco education program, a program that is especially important to him due to his father’s death at age 56 from heart disease brought on by smoking. “I spent the last 8-9 years of my career working to help people quit the addiction to tobacco and to educate the public about the dangers.”

Jay’s tobacco education experience eventually led with an appointment by North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple to the North Dakota Tobacco Prevention and Advisory Committee, where he is currently the chair. “We work with tobacco education and prevention at about any level you can imagine and work to get the ND Legislature to pass laws that keep tobacco products (including e-cigarettes) away from kids,” he said. “Preventing youth smoking starts with simply keeping tobacco products out of their reach by making them too expensive (tax increases) and outlawing locations where smoking is permitted. It's a long term solution to a big problem, but we're winning!”

Jay Taylor is the kind of man that makes an impact anywhere he goes. Whether he is working to increase the health and awareness of our area young people or making sure their Christmas is as special as possible, Jay is a man on a mission. As if that isn’t enough, he also works for his friend Casey Absey at his restaurant Blackbird Woodfire in downtown Fargo. “I make a really, really good brownie,” Jay said.

Santa Jay can be found in his red suit at various places around the area, including West Acres, Scheels, and the Red River Zoo. More information about the Fargo Entertainment Company can be obtained at www.fargoentertainmentcompany.com.