Local man enjoys role as Santa Claus

Grady Bryant got used to the stares while sitting in traffic, the pointing and even the jubilant waving from children.

“Really, to start with I didn’t think anything about it,” Bryant said. “I knew they were pointing and waving, but I didn’t think it was because I look like Santa.”

It was his wife, Wanda, who made the connection. While 59-year-old Grady Bryant has looked the part for years, it wasn’t until last year he started “helping” Santa Claus by donning a red and white suit and hearing out the Christmas wishes of children.

Voters in the Dothan Eagle’s online Santa look-alike contest also think Grady Bryant makes a jolly Santa. Bryant won the contest with 1,562 votes out of the 2,099 total votes cast at dothaneagle.com.

The self-employed brick layer began his new role last year after his daughter, April Harris, asked him to play Santa. Harris works for Picerne Military Housing, and each year the company hosts a Christmas celebration for military residents of Fort Rucker and their families. Last year, the party needed a Santa, so Harris turned to her father.

Bryant greeted more than 200 children last year. At this year’s event, he visited with more than 500 children plus about 30 to 40 dogs. He spent four hours hearing requests and never took a break despite Picerne employees questioning whether he needed to go “feed his reindeer.”

Wanda Bryant thinks it was some Internet help that put his husband over the top. Their daughter sought support for her dad on local Web site WiregrassLive.com. Grady Bryant even has his own My Space page, under the name Papa Claus, thanks to his daughter.

Bryant relishes his job as Santa. He loves to see the excitement in the children.

He usually keeps his white beard trimmed but lets it grow between July and January. Only his dark eyebrows show the original color of his hair.

“It was black,” he said. “Then it turned gray; then it turned loose on top.”

He takes care to avoid his own grandchildren — ages 2, 5 and 7 — when he’s in Santa mode so as not to confuse them. The few times they’ve seen him in his suit at events have been explained by Wanda Bryant.

“I told them Santa was so busy, he advertised in the newspaper for helpers,” she said.

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How did the vote go?
Here is a rundown of the Dothan Eagle’s online Santa look-alike contest:
Winner: Grady Bryant of Midland City
Runner-ups: Jimmy Redden of Enterprise and Carl Dutton came in second and third, respectively.
Votes cast: 2,099
Countries represented: People in at least six different countries visited dothaneagle.com to vote — 2,088 votes originated from the United States; three from Holland; two from the United Kingdom; one from Turkey; one from Canada; and one from Germany. Three votes were from unknown origins.