Black Santa has his ear to the street
What does Santa do the rest of the year?
This interview was originally published on Medium on December 18, 2020.
Everyone knows what Santa is doing in December, but what does Santa Claus do the other 11 months of the year? There’s not a lot to be said about what happens when the boots, the belt, the hat and the suit head to the hamper, and the spectacles to their case.
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But for Chicagoans like Andre Russell, also known as Dreezy Claus (“Chicago’s Black Santa”), being in children’s lives is an all-year round process. With a background in Criminal Justice from Chicago State University, Russell started his career by working in an after-school program. Shortly after, he made the decision to navigate his way to at-risk youth.
“As a black man working and learning about the system in my field, I discovered I had the patience for it,” Russell explained. “As a mentor, I could help identify with the needs of these young, black men. And if you’re good at it and you feel connected to it, you see the results. I want to be a positive impact on people.”
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Russell has been working in some capacity with juvenile offenders for the past 15 years, spending more than half of his career at Mercy Home for Boys and Girls in Chicago. For the past three years, he’s focused on being a behavior interventionist, working on Chicago’s South Side as the dean of Students at LEARN Hunter Perkins Charter School for grades K-8.
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“The more education I got on the process and everything else, I just became more passionate about working with that demographic in that environment,” Russell said. “And if you’re working within your passion, then it’s not really work.”
But when he steps foot outside of the doors of his full-time job, his day is not done.
As the founder of the Smith Center for Community Advancement (named after his grandparents), he is in charge of providing specialized treatment in academic assistance, behavioral intervention, parental advocacy and supportive resources, community assistance, and activism for South Side Chicago families.
As of March 2020, he became a co-facilitator of Brilliant Brown Boys Book Club, founded by Chez Smith and in collaboration with fellow adult reader Don Bailey. The team works with boys ages 7–13 to assign online book reviews and read aloud. This online book club is also a safe space for youth to talk about what’s going on in the community, including recent news about police officers versus citizens, looting versus protesting, anti-violence campaigns and more.
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Russell, who insists one should never “stay stagnant if you can help it,” occasionally holds mini-interviews on his Facebook Live about positive black news happening around town. Then by the time winter hits, the bells start jingling again.
With a decade of experience being Dreezy Claus, he’s popped up at black business events, in collaboration with Chance the Rapper’s SocialWorks’ annual Night at the Museum fundraiser, and released a book entitled “Dreezy Claus and the Boy Who Didn’t Believe.”
Describing himself with a “look, style and approach that is more polished,” Russell is one of very few Santa Clauses seen around the holiday season with gray locks and a Santa beard neat enough to make barbers proud.
“Somebody suggested making [Black Santa] a viable business, and see where that goes,” he said. “I wanted a more professional feel, not just being a guy in a Santa suit.”
And judging from the way he’s managed to connect humanitarianism with community service, activism, youth outreach and holiday cheer, it’s safe to say he’s no ordinary guy in a suit anyway.
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