We’ve heard a lot about super-spreader events in 2020, but the one that took place in Thompson over the weekend wasn’t about anything more infectious than smiles and Christmas spirit.
For four hours on Friday and five more on Saturday, Geoff Greenfield took his pickup truck around various neighbourhoods in Thompson, wishing people a Merry Christmas from a vehicle with Santa Claus and a Christmas tree in the bed and Christmas lights all around.
“I just want to try to spread some Christmas cheer,” Greenfield told the Thompson Citizen.
He started thinking about doing something like this when Thompson’s annual Santa Claus parade was cancelled due to the provincial government moving Manitoba to code red on the Pandemic Response System, which prohibits all indoor or outdoor gatherings.
He didn’t have a Santa suit of his own – “I called a friend and said, ‘Hey man, I need a Santa Claus suit,’”–but Greenfield doesn’t seem to lack when it comes to being jolly.
“That was the goal: to raise Christmas spirits,” Greenfield said, who also drove past Northern Spirit Manor personal care home and believes that they and some other adults got a kick out of seeing Santa too.
He definitely delivered Christmas cheer to two-year-old Landyn Moncrief, whose mother Tamara Katchmar got a call from a friend telling her to get her son dressed and take him outside.
“Landyn was above and beyond the moon,” said Katchmar. “He was stoked. As he came closer, his eyes just got bigger and his smile just got bigger. It was just phenomenal to see my son smile like that. It just meant the world to us.”
And while his antics generated plenty of buzz in local Facebook groups, Greenfield said it wasn’t about marketing his Howling Wolf Tours company, which isn’t operating right now due to COVID-19, or getting attention for himself. He said he knows that a lot of people have had a tough year and that kids my not be getting the cool new toy for Christmas but that the season isn’t just about gifts.
“I want to make sure some kids have a good time between now and Christmas,” he said.
If other kids’ reactions were like that of Landyn, he definitely succeeded.
“He brought a lot of smiles to a lot of people’s faces,” Katchmar said. “There was no motive behind it besides smiles.”
While many people saw his parade on the weekend, Gteenfield says he has plans to hit the neighbourhoods he missed, including Eastwood, Riverside and the downtown core.
“We are going to do it again,” he said.
