Black mall Santa in Metro Detroit says kids don't see his skin color (with video)

Gus Burns | By Gus Burns |
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on December 18, 2012 at 12:20 PM, updated December 18, 2012 at 2:03 PM
Black Santa David Allen.JPG David G. Allen, 56, of Highland Park had played Santa Claus at Southfield's Northland Mall for two years.  
David G. Allen, a 56-year-old black man from Highland Park, hopes to break the color barrier.

"Traditionally, at the end of the (Detroit Thanksgiving Day) parade is Santa Claus; they've all been white," he says from his makeshift North Pole in Southfield's Northland Mall. "I'd like to be the first black Santa Claus in the Thanksgiving Day Parade."

Allen, who's been nicknamed "Chocolate Santa" by those who know him at the mall, agrees that his race makes him a unique choice to play Santa Claus, traditionally a white man derived from Dutch lore, but said he's a "natural" and loves interacting with the kids.

It's his second year taking children's toy orders. His additional pigment doesn't cause too many problems, Allen says.

"I've heard some older people, 'You're not real cause you're (black),'" he says. "I call them player haters."

An occasional child will also comment.

"The question is, you're not real, you're black?" says Allen, as a fan blows his direction to cool him beneath the full-bodied red felt suit. "Santa's a kid's fantasy... He's got helpers... they could be Chinese, white, black, we're all helpers working for Santa, that's what I usually tell them."

Most kids don't even recognize race; it's just a part of "fantasy" that kids are able to look past, said Allen.

It's Monday afternoon at Southfield's Northland Mall and from a ornamental throne staged amid puffy cotton to replicate snow arises a deep bellow.

A bass-heavy "Ho, Ho, Ho!" resonates from the portly mall Santa as he waves his white-gloved hands to a few passing children.

"It's from the gut," Allen says. "It's all about the, 'Ho Ho Ho,' and kids come running like the Pied Piper."

He's dressed in the traditional red suit, wire rimmed glasses fall to the tip of his black nose and his black cheeks peek from behind an uncomfortable looking fake white beard.

He's like thousands of other mall Santas in most regards.

"Truly, kids don't see color," says Allen. "Last year I had my suit on, I rode the bus downtown, Campus Martius they were ice skating, about 50 white kids ice skating.

"They see me in my red suit, come running, 'Santa, Santa, Santa,' and they did a group picture with me, looked like a raisin in a snowstorm," he says and laughs. "So kids don't see color, just like prejudice, they're taught that."

Along with conquering his goal of becoming the Detroit Thanksgiving Day Parade's first black Santa, Allen has plans to start a Santa training school.

He says there's not enough black men doing it; he'd like to see that change.

"I'm a natural, so I think I can teach other black guys to be Santa," says Allen. Speaking of fantasy, "a fat white Santa coming down the chimney in the ghetto?"

In addition to his race, Allen something else that makes him unique, playing a Christian-derived character.

"I'm an Israelite," he says. "An original Jew, black Jew. We don't study Christianity."

But "I like what I'm doing and I would do it for free, but they pay you... it's a blessing when you can do something you love for a job.