Just your friendly neighborhood Santa

Bloomfield resident Steve Tice is a serial Santa Claus.

During the holiday season this is evident because of the multiple Kris Kringle appearances he makes around Bloomfield.

He has one at Franklin Elementary School and another at Demarest Elementary, where his wife, Lorajean, is a third-grade teacher. There is a big one at Hot Bagels Abroad. This celebration closed down Broad Street last week.

And maybe not the biggest, but definitely the one that shows how big-hearted this Santa is, happens at the Tice’s Bolton Place residence as it did this past Monday. With decorations galore, it is a spectacle by a neighborhood guy asking people to bring Santa a new, unwrapped gift for children in need. And people have been flocking to it for years. But like most big ideas, it started small.

“The idea was derived from my daughter Emily when she was in second grade at Oak View,” Tice said in his kitchen this past Monday afternoon a few hours before Santa’s arrival. “She’s 19 now. My son Kyle, who is 22, is a big part of this, too.”

Tice said he and Emily, 12 years ago, were in a mall during Christmas time and a Santa was there. People were leaving toys for needy children and Emily wanted to know what was going on. Why did Santa need toys? So Tice and his wife explained that sometimes Santa needs help because there are poor children who may not get a Christmas present. Well, after hearing that, Emily wanted to help, too.

“It started out for us with hand written signs posted around Oak View to come to our home with a toy and have a picture taken with Santa,” Tice said. “It was the same year we saw that Santa in the mall. I already had a Santa suit from the other events.”

About 150 people arrived that first year. Tice and his wife are not sure how many come now, but it is a lot more. The Bloomfield Police Department sets up barricades and closes down the street and the fire department sends a truck. Tice said the police have been involved since the second year of the event. Bloomfield Girl Scout Troop 20340 sings carols. Both of Tice’s children make the effort to be home and help out each year although not as elves anymore. They are Santa’s helpers.

“The line to see Santa now stretches down the block and around the corner,” said Lorajean, who plays Mrs. Claus.

The toys go to the Youth Aid Division of the police department and the Bloomfield Human Services Department. People who cannot come to see Santa drop off gifts anyway. Tice said his garage was already one-third full before Santa even arrived.

“The first year, we brought the toys into the living room,” Tice said. “Now we use a truck borrowed from Forte Plumbing and my friend, Mark Forte. The first year, we put the toys into plastic tubs and brought them into the house and made multiple trips to the police department to drop them off. But after we had 45 garbage bags of toys seven years ago, we got the box truck.”

He said a few neighborhood kids help to load the truck.

“We got it down pretty good,” Tice said of the overall operation.

He said an announcement that Santa has just landed in the backyard and the playing of Bruce Springstein’s “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” will alert everyone that the moment has arrived. Tice will then appear and sit near the garage doors. The children walk a red carpet running up the driveway. A neighbor’s relative, a boy named Kevin, playing the part of an elf, asks parents their child’s name. This is surreptitiously passed to Tice who said you should see the wide-eyed look children give him hearing that Santa knows their name.

“We try to get the names right,” Tice said, “especially when there are multiple kids.”

Cookies and hot chocolate are provided by a sister and sister-in-law. During Covid, which did not prevent the event from happening, Tice social distanced everything outside and cookies were wrapped.

“It brings the neighborhood together,” Tice said. “We’ve gotten great support.”

He especially noted the help from neighbors Glenn Wolski, Rob and Kristine Bell, Tim and Tracy Foley and Dave and Lisa Murawinski. In 2019, Tice received the Martin Luther King Jr. award from the township for service to the community.

“We do it for the kids,” Tice said. “Their faces are unbelievable to see. I ask the basic questions: Have you been good? Do you listen to your parents? It’s more of an engagement than you would get from a mall Santa.”

Tice, who has never seen the excitement for Santa building up because he is inside his house, said he keeps asking his son if he would like to be Santa sometime.

“I’d like to watch what happens from the outside instead of waiting in the house for Santa’s arrival,” he said, adding that he would like to see his son take over when he retires.

“My daughter would like to take over Mrs. Claus,” he said, “because it all started with her.”

  bloomfield, Santa Claus