OKLAHOMA CITY — Kenny Blair delivered joy.
As a singer, he led the church choir. As the funny man of his friend group, some say he could have done stand-up comedy. An all-state football player in high school, Blair earned a scholarship to play at the University of Missouri and was a member of the Philadelphia Eagles when they made their first Super Bowl appearance in the early ‘80s.
Years later, long after he hung up his football jersey, Blair suited up in a different way.
He became Santa Claus.
“It was just this glow in him,” said Ryan Blair-Smith, his oldest daughter. “Little kids would always come up to him, even if he wasn’t wearing the Santa suit. They just knew.”
Every time Blair donned his tailored red suit, whether it was trimmed with brown fur or lined in pink in honor of breast cancer survivors, his daughter saw that light in her dad’s eye shine the brightest.
As a Black man in Oklahoma, Blair wanted to be a Santa that represented his community. He ended up being recognized around the world.
“People didn’t see color when they saw my dad, they saw Santa,” Blair-Smith said.
It’s been nine months since Blair, known as “Santa Blair” in Oklahoma and across the U.S., died from complications from a heart attack. He was 65.
People attend an April 6 remembrance ceremony for Dr. Kenny Blair, known as “Santa Blair,” at Life Church in Edmond, Oklahoma. Photo by Sarah Phipps/The Oklahoman/USA Today Network
This first Christmas without Blair has prompted his family to reflect on the life he lived and the legacy they hope to carry on.
“It’s hard to even imagine Christmas without him,” Blair-Smith said. “But we are going to try.”
Blair-Smith doesn’t know exactly when her dad first dressed as Santa, but she remembers how she found out.
Shortly before the holiday season in 2019, she remembers her dad mentioning he had purchased a Santa suit.
She laughed, thinking it would be fun to surprise the kids in her family.
Blair raced to his closet and brought back a bright red three-piece number with matching vest and hat.
“Dad, this is elaborate,” she remembers telling him.
“Hang on,” Blair said. “Let me go get the other ones.”
He then wheeled out a rack of Santa suits for a full Santa fashion show.
“Two suits turned to five, five turned to 20,” Blair-Smith said of the moment.
Ryan Blair-Smith zips up a custom Santa suit her father, Kenny Blair, had made before his death in March. Photo by Adam Kemp/PBS News
Blair had each suit custom-made in different colors and trimmed in different furs. They were also lined inside, tailored to fit the event where he was appearing as Santa. One was lined with Barbie dolls on one side and toy trucks on the other, so kids could pick out what they wanted for Christmas. Another was lined with multicolor puzzle pieces representing Autism Awareness Month. Another was decked out in the purple and black in honor of the fictional African nation of Wakanda and the late “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman.
Blair-Smith’s home in Oklahoma City has rolls of fabric and dozens of sketches for future suits that had yet to be made.
“He didn’t want to look like every other Santa because that was kind of the whole point,” she said. “The point was for the kids to see themselves and believe that they too belong and are cared for.”
Kenny Blair had more than 40 suits tailor-made for his role as “Santa Blair.” Photo By Adam Kemp/PBS News
Blair, the oldest of four children, helped raise his younger siblings.
Despite his hard childhood, Blair stressed how much he loved Christmas. He made sure to make the season special for his siblings, a desire he later extended to his own children and then his grandchildren.
While in college at Missouri, Blair got his first taste of the Santa life.
As a member of the football team, he and his teammates would often visit sick kids during the holiday season. They brought toys or sang songs. But Blair took to the role a little more seriously than his teammates.
Donning a red Adidas tracksuit, a red hat and a fake white beard, the 6-foot-5 Blair returned to the hospital to spread Christmas cheer on his own.
“They could just look at him and trust him instantly,” Blair-Smith said. “He wanted to give them the world.”
Kenny Blair (right) visiting a classroom with Missouri football teammate Wendell Ray. Photo courtesy of Ryan Blair-Smith
That impulse led Blair to teaching after his NFL career ended. He returned to Oklahoma City, and coached and taught at schools around the metro area.
As a coach, he was no-nonsense, said former player Tony Foster Jr., who played for Blair in 2005.
That season, their team only won one game. But Foster said they practiced and prepared for each game like they were going in undefeated.
“He just had this approach where he wanted you to find the best in yourself,” Foster said. “He set me up for who I am today.”
Blair-Smith said her dad took the most pride in being a coach and a teacher, often praising students for improving a failing grade or bragging about who got into college.
Before he gave presents away as Santa, Blair was known for keeping boxes of shoes and clothing behind his desk to give to a student in need.
“That’s where he truly gave his heart and soul,” Blair-Smith said. “He loved those kids and would’ve done anything to help them succeed.”
During the pandemic, Blair was only able to appear via virtual events.
It gave Blair’s granddaughter the idea of making TikToks to show off his Santa suits on the video platform. Blair jumped at another chance to spread some cheer while people were in lockdown or in the hospital.
In one of his first videos, Blair is standing in front of the camera in a tracksuit while he brings a ring light over his head. Turning on the bright white light — and with some editing magic — he transformed into Santa Blair.
The video exploded online, drawing hundreds of thousands of likes and nearly 30,000 comments.
“His threads are tighter than any other Santa I’ve seen,” reads a top comment.
“Your smile made my day,” read another.
“Our Santa!”
Blair-Smith and her family very quickly became TikTok elves supporting Santa Blair’s viral fame, helping him film videos around the house as they tried staying ahead of different trends and kept pace with the growing number of Santa suits. Blair had more than 40 suits by the end of his life.
Then the phone calls started. Disney wanted Blair to be their in-park Santa in 2022. He visited states around the country to make appearances. In 2023, Blair was the Santa on “The View” for two days in a row. He had plans for a children’s book.
“Santa Blair” posing for a photo (left) with co-host Whoopi Goldberg on the set of “The View” in 2023. Kenny Blair with family members (right) pose for a photo in 2021. Photos courtesy of Ryan Blair-Smith
“He was worldwide,” Blair-Smith said. “Some people who hadn’t celebrated Christmas in years would come up to him and tell him, ‘You make me believe in the magic of Christmas again.’”
Elaina Hayes is dreading telling her two daughters they won’t be visiting Santa Blair this year.
Since moving to Oklahoma in 2015, Hayes said planning their visits to Blair had been more than a trip to see Santa, it’s been a way of making things feel like home and finding a community.
“His swag was like no other,” Hayes said. “This is Santa 2.0.”
Last summer, Santa Blair walked in Oklahoma City’s Juneteenth festival. During the celebration, Santa Blair spotted the two girls, Dylan and Dallas, and jogged over to them. He lifted them over the barricade and gave them hugs. He then asked a question expected of Santa: Were they “being good?”
Dylan Hayes meets “Santa Blair” during Christmastime in 2021. Blair died from a heart attack in March. Photo courtesy of Elaina Hayes
As a kid, Hayes said she remembered the annual trip to see Santa feeling a little transactional, paying money to take a quick picture with Kris Kingle at the mall before getting ushered out of line.
Santa Blair was different, she said, enmeshed in the community that made him feel alive.
On her daughters’ last visit to see Santa Blair, Hayes said he really took his time and talked with them about what they wanted for Christmas. He laughed and played with them, and gave them little presents.
“I tried dragging them away so other people could have their turn and he said, ‘Oh, no. We have time,’” Hayes said. “It truly felt like visiting family.”
Tracy McDaniel has been thinking a lot about the legacy of Santa Blair.
McDaniel hopes his lifelong friend is remembered for visiting child care centers and nursing homes, and — of course — his warm smile from his TikTok videos.
“He could’ve done anything,” longtime friend Tracy McDaniel said of Blair. “But he was always going to do it with that smile and with that aura to him.”
He also wonders if Blair being a Black Santa will be the reason people remember him.
While the Santas portrayed in movies, TV, commercials and decorations are predominately white, McDaniel said Black Santas have always been present in Black communities.
“There has always been a Black Santa,” McDaniel said. “The rest of the world just didn’t see him.”
And Santa Blair was seen around the world.
“He reached the pinnacle because he wasn’t just seen as Black Santa,” McDaniel said of Blair. “He was everybody’s Santa.”
Blair-Smith has racks of her dad’s Santa suits in her house. She’s trying to figure out what to do with them. She has aspirations of making a traveling exhibit dedicated to Santa Blair and Black Santas.
At first, Blair-Smith wanted to have a quiet Christmas this year. But as soon as November rolled around, the family was getting down Christmas decorations and planning for a big celebration.
“I am honoring my dad by showing up for those I love,” Blair-Smith said. “Not just for Christmas, but the whole year.”
They are gathering at her house for a big bash. They plan to play all of Blair’s favorite songs and hire a cook to make all of his favorite dishes.
The whole family is invited. The more the merrier.
