COVID won’t stop Laramie man from bringing Christmas to families
COVID won’t stop Laramie man from bringing Christmas to families
By Marissa Taylor
Laramie Boomerang
Via Wyoming News Exchange
LARAMIE — The Laramie community may know Marcus Law as the friendly veteran who drinks white wine with ice cubes and cracks jokes all day long. Others may know him as Naughty Santa, who asks 3rd Street Grill patrons to bring toys for children in exchange for a “special” gift. This year, COVID-19 has changed the methods by which Law will spread cheer but that won’t stop him or his efforts to bring a little Christmas to Laramie families.
Law has partnered with several local businesses to donate holiday dinners, food and toys to the Laramie Soup Kitchen, Cathedral Home for Children and the Community Holidays Program.
The project is called Community Mission 2020
“COVID shut everything down … so what’s that going to do for Christmas and the kids? They don’t get it,” Law said. “COVID’s not going to shut me down.”
Community Mission 2020 is a COVID-adapted strategy to continue Law’s decades-long Christmas tradition of ensuring families in need will have Christmas dinners.
Law described the mission as a “silent little thing” where sponsors like Born in a Barn and Luna Salon and Spa provide drop box sites for donations.
According to Law, it just isn’t Christmas without a turkey and fixings, so The Bank of the West and Elite Medical Supplies (the latter owned by Tim Brown) are also partnering with Law this year and will be providing a minimum of 15 complete Christmas dinners for the Cathedral Home and the soup kitchen.
“We’re trying to do what we can to make sure families have dinners and some type of Christmas,” Law said.
Since 1976, Law has dressed up as Santa Claus and spread holiday cheer for children of all ages in the community. He said his fascination with Santa started when he was around 5-years-old.
His father took him to the Masonic Temple in Michigan where they were living, and he watched his grandpa play Santa, not realizing who it was.
It wasn’t until after Law had graduated high school and was drafted that he found out it was his grandfather all along.
“It intrigued me a little bit,” Law said.
After his return from Vietnam, Law moved to Casper, where his 20-years-long Santa Career started.
Law made friends with an individual working for cable TV in Casper and was asked to help play Santa for Toys for Tots.
“In Casper … we picked up turkeys, toys and everything and delivered them in cable TV trucks to their homes.”
From then on, Law worked private Santa shows during the holidays for hospice, clubs and other entities before retiring in 2010 and relocating to Laramie.
With years of experience under his Santa belt, Law continued dressing as Santa in Laramie, doing private parties and Christmas parades — he was even invited to do a dinner party with the Wyoming Elk Association for the Laramie location.
“Santa is the face of Christmas; he’s the heart, he’s the spirit, he’s the love — he’s everything about Christmas, and you can’t take that away from the children,” Law said.
He does it for the children and even though this year Law can’t dress up, he said all he wants to do is spread a little love, especially during COVID-19.
“You can’t take that away from the children,” he said. “Santa comes from the heart and this is what we’re giving right now, from our community back out.”