Georgia Magazine - December 2019 - 36

My GEORGIA

By Byron McCombs

Substitute Santa saves the day

icture day with Santa Claus on the Friday after Thanksgiving Day has become a wonderful tradition at Southern Tree Plantation, our
family's Christmas tree farm in Blairsville. For more
than a decade we were fortunate to have the services
of a local-legend Santa Claus. Each year we looked
forward to picture day at the farm with excited children scattered throughout the barn awaiting their
opportunity to visit with Santa.
The routine annual event turned otherwise
one Thanksgiving Eve in 2014 when we learned that
our longtime Santa was sidelined with a Christmasseason-ending knee injury. Apparently climbing in
and out of chimneys as well as the wear and tear of
children sitting on his knee had taken their toll.
The previous week, Georgia Bulldogs star running back Todd Gurley suffered a similar knee injury.
Our star Santa and Gurley were both out for the rest
of the season. The Bulldogs were blessed to have
St. Nick Chubb as a substitute for Gurley, both of
whom now play in the NFL. Unfortunately, we did
not have a second-string Santa.
As we sat around the dinner table in search of
a solution, we discussed the slim chances of finding
an available Santa with one day's notice and at the
height of demand for their services. We concluded

Professional Santa Dale Grizzle came to the rescue of brothers
Howard McCombs, left, and Byron McCombs when their family's
Christmas tree farm faced a Santa crisis.

Georgia Magazine

December 2019

Santa Dale Grizzle's last-minute fill-in at Southern Tree Plantation
in 2014 led to a standing appointment there every Friday after
Thanksgiving.

that whoever might be available at this point would have to be
the embodiment of a "Bad Santa."
Our search for a substitute Santa began with a lead from
my sister, who connected us to the Real Bearded Santas of
North Georgia, a group providing networking and fellowship
for professional Santas. A right jolly old elf from that group was
kind enough to send out a Facebook message alerting his realbearded brothers of our dilemma. Incredibly, Santa Dale Grizzle
responded and was available that Friday.
I couldn't help but wonder why Santa Dale was available.
Reluctantly, with visions of Bad Santas dancing in my head, I
called him up. He sounded Santa enough, so, with picture day
only 24 hours away, I invited him to our Christmas tree farm.
When Santa Dale appeared at the farm and I saw him with
his real beard, twinkle in his eye, rosy cheeks and sincere smile,
I laughed in spite of myself. He saved the day, arriving just in the
nick of time.
Like Rudolph, Santa Dale has gone down in history for
us. He has served as our Santa on picture day for six years now
and, we hope, will continue to do so for many more Christmas
seasons to come.
Byron McCombs is the staff assistant at Blue Ridge
Mountain Electric Membership Corp. in Young Harris. He and
his brother, Howard, operate Southern Tree Plantation,
southerntreeplantation.com.

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http://www.southerntreeplantation.com

Georgia Magazine - December 2019

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