Christmas carols play softly in the background among pine trees wrapped with colored lights and silver tinsel scattered among the branches creating an ambience while you wait in a line to see a man dressed in red with a long, white beard.
A man with a hearty laugh that comes deep from in him. A laugh synonymous with Christmas, joy and uniquely him. A man with many faces, ones you’ll see at a mall, in a commercial or at a Christmas party.
One of those “ho, ho, ho” faces is Jason Kindred who, during the end of November and the whole month of December, is better known as Papa Yule.
For three years, Kindred has been attending events and house calls as Papa Yule in Delaware County and surrounding areas.
What started as a simple lighthearted idea evolved into a more meaningful personal tradition to support his community and bring joy to families.
As he got older, and partially because of his whitening beard, his long-term partner, Midwest artist Kassandra Hicks, would joke he should start being the character of Santa Claus.
Along with the whitening beard, Papa Yule also came from Kindred’s time as a mailman, and around 2018-19, Hicks recalled he bought a cheap Santa costume and delivered mail, delighting the children inside who saw him.
Hicks said seeing Kindred enjoying that moment reminded her of her time as a clown and party mermaid. She enjoyed “letting children be children” and watching them love the magic of believing in something.
“Just the kind of magic that you could give children, and he kind of had a little glimpse of that when he was a mailman,” Hicks said. “I kind of wanted to give that to him. I was like, ‘Hey, Santa is a great idea.’”
Together, the couple made Kindred a Santa costume to use. Kindred focused on being inclusive and different from other designs. He drew from a more traditional folklore Father Christmas vibe than a typical, what Kindred describes as, “Coca-Cola Santa.”
Additionally, instead of going by Santa Claus, Kindred and Hicks chose the name Papa Yule.
Kindred’s Papa Yule tips a hat to classic Santa with the known red suit, but Hicks and Kindred designed it with the intention of looking like items gathered by someone who’d lived in the woods.
Instead of snow-white trim and a black, big-buckled belt, it’s grayed, wolf-like fur trim and a sash with white leather riding gloves. A classic, light-up Father Christmas wreath replaces the hat.
Paired with the suit, Kindred also wears two scents: fir trees and sugar cookies.
“It kind of gives this calming type element, so when the kids come close, I don't smell like some mall Santa that's just taken a cigarette break,” Kindred said. “I try to make sure it's the whole experience between my voice and my suit and the way I smell and what I say. I try to make sure that they get the entire Papa Yule experience.”
Once the suit and all of the other accessories are on, Kindred’s brain switches gears, and he becomes Papa Yule.
“When he puts on the suit, he becomes Santa, like the character just kind of takes over and his rosy cheeks and his big jolly laugh. It's just overwhelming, sometimes,” Hicks said.
The fact the character takes over helps Kindred with events that can last four to five hours. His focus is on the experience for the children.
“The energy comes from the kids, just because of the fact that they are so enamored to come up and talk to me and tell me what they want for Christmas and how good they have been, and stuff like that,” he said.
Having a line of excited children pushes Kindred through long events. It creates a “continual energy feedback loop” between Papa Yule and the children.
Hicks, who’s witnessed these interactions, is astounded by the warmth and joy Kindred brings.
“The idea itself is a lot stronger with children and the magic, you see when the kids are like, ‘wow, that's, that's really the guy!’ It's so adorable,” Hicks said. “My favorite would be witnessing the parents kind of reconnect to their childhood, too.”
Kindred covers a variety of events from big parades in downtown Muncie, private parties and house calls — doing them for little to no charge, most of them being for free.
One event that sticks out to Kindred was an event held at an autism center. The children would meet him in a room with a nice backdrop for photos and to keep the atmosphere calm and not overstimulating.
While doing the event, two, typically nonverbal, children said, “Santa!”as soon as they saw Papa Yule.
“When they said that, the caregivers and the parents both became very emotional, and it was difficult for me not to become emotional just because you could tell how big of a deal it was to them [that] they actually said a word,” Kindred said. “It's definitely something I will always cherish, and I will never, ever forget.”
Though that’s just one event, every event for Kindred carries some form of emotional weight.
A misconception he has come across is that being Papa Yule, or any Santa, is easy and is just sitting in a suit. What being Papa Yule entails is sitting in a suit entirely in character.
Each response is from Papa Yule, not Kindred, so processing the emotions from each event happens afterwards, when Kindred is safely in his car.
“I cry like a baby sometimes, just because you see interactions and things that are so sweet and so very endearing and wholesome, and a lot of times in today's world, those are very few and far between. So when you see the purity of a kid having just this really great time, sometimes it is overwhelming,” Kindred said.
Another high emotion event that stood out to Kindred was an event at A Better Way’s transitional housing in Muncie.
The event, organized by A Better Way’s Education and Outreach Specialist Lenora McRoberts, was aimed at providing a moment of normalcy and new memories for the families escaping domestic violence.
“This time of year is just a time of joy and light and family … It's a beautiful time, but I know from the work that we do and the population that we serve that that is not the case for most of the families that we come in contact with,” McRoberts said.
McRoberts organized the event last year after seeing Kindred’s posts of Papa Yule and from knowing him from his time working in child services at Randolph County.
Papa Yule’s appearance at A Better Way has been a unique experience for Kindred compared to his other events. The difference in his interaction with the families and children there sticks with him.
“They're going to ask you for different things than other kids would ask for,” Kindred said. “Some of those kids, I had several of them when I said, ‘What's the big thing you want this year, the thing at the very top of your list?’ A lot of them, or several of them, told me, ‘I want a Christmas tree,’ not ‘I want a PS5’ or ‘I want a Barbie Dream house;’ I want a Christmas tree, and that hits different when a kid like that asks for something like that.”
Though Kindred has general memories of every event, he also remembers every interaction by keeping every Christmas list or drawing a kid gives him.
“If I'm just having a bad, bad mental health day, I'll just flip through those Santa lists, and it just absolutely lifts my spirits up,” he said.
Contact Hannah Amos via email at hannah.amos@bsu.edu or on X @Hannah_Amos_394.
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