For decades, Baltimore families looking to celebrate their baby’s first Christmas or carry on the magic just a little bit longer with their older children could come to Mondawmin Mall and soak up the holiday cheer brought by Santa Luke, a jolly, thoughtful, and warmhearted gentleman who has donned the suit since the mid-‘80s.
But as they made their holiday plans this year, many were likely surprised to see that the stalwart Santa wasn’t in his usual chair this season.
Luke Durant — affectionately known as Santa Luke — has taken the year off to focus on his health. Though he’s heartbroken that he has to miss out on his annual Santa duties this year as well as last year, he can’t wait to get back out there next year to share wisdom and spread joy for young people across Baltimore.
Even though he gets the Santa glimmer in his eye every October, Durant, 77, brings warmth and holiday cheer to every room he steps into all year round — whether he’s in or out of the Santa suit.
Durant has held the duty of being Mondawmin Mall’s Santa for the past 40 years in the highest regard: a blessing, a calling, and a form of ministry to connect with young people and their families in the Baltimore community and beyond.
“You can’t just go up there, put on a Santa Claus suit, and say, ‘I’m Santa Claus, Ho! Ho! Ho!’” Durant said. “You got to be more than Ho! Ho! Ho! You got to be a God-fearing man, you got to make people feel good about themselves, and you got to give up that sound advice when people come up and ask you for it.”
“I’m a firm believer that you just can’t hire anybody to be a Santa Claus, just like you can’t hire anybody for any other job,” he continued. “You got to really love people, and you got to love your audience to do that job.”
And people hold that love with them for decades.
Luke’s son Shannon drives for Lyft most days, and said that in any given week he’ll hear several stories from his passengers about their experiences meeting Santa Luke in their childhood and bringing their own children to meet him.
“Just by me saying, ‘Oh yeah, my father was Santa Claus at Mondawmin,’ I hear, ‘Oh, my God, hold on. The man with the white hair, that was your father?!’” Shannon said, “And then they’ll pick up their phone to say, ‘Hey, man, I’m riding with Santa Luke’s son!’”
Seeing the generations of people who have interacted with his father is something he’s used to but always excited to hear about, Shannon said.
“I hear, ‘I have a picture with your dad, but my daughter now and my son has a picture with your dad,’” he recalled with pride.
Though he speaks about his Santa-hood with conviction now, Luke first stepped into the Santa role as a fill-in. Back in the early 1980s — before he had a white beard of his own — he was the president of Lafayette Market, now Avenue Market on Pennsylvania Avenue, and wanted to bring a Santa to the market to promote it as a positive part of the West Baltimore community.
The man they hired to be Santa had a heart attack the day before his debut, said Tina Imperial-Trainor, who has worked with Durant for decades, as his secretary back then but his business partner since he first took on the Santa mantle. The team had hired a band and decorated the space with Christmas lights and holiday garlands, but with a new official Santa suit from the City of Baltimore and no Santa, the team was panicking.
Durant was hesitant to put on the suit at first, so Imperial-Trainor tried it on. But at 5-foot-1 and 98 pounds, the suit hung at least six inches below her hands.
Durant took one look at the scene and said “No, no, no, no, no, no, Tina, I’ll do it.”
With each piece of the suit he donned, Durant began to transform into Santa little by little before Imperial-Trainor’s eyes.
Out on the stage, she lined the children up to sing holiday songs while she rang Christmas bells. Durant’s brother, Dexter, banged a tin can to mimic the clopping sound of reindeer hooves landing on the metal rooftop.
Imperial-Trainor built up the suspense, telling children to quiet down and listen out for Santa before he made his appearance.
“Everything was going like clockwork,” Imperial-Trainor said. “Santa Claus starts coming around the corner, and you never heard so many children — there was hundreds of them screaming for him! He sat down in that chair, and next thing you know, the man became Santa Claus.”
Some of Mondawmin Mall’s staff were in attendance for Durant’s’s debut and asked if he could be their Santa. Since that fateful day, Durant has been the Santa in Mondawmin Mall, even running the now-closed mall candy store Somethin’ Good Jr. together with Imperial-Trainor for 20 years.
His Santa-hood hasn’t been limited to Mondawmin Mall — over the decades, Durant has also made appearances at dozens of hospitals and schools in the state, and, alongside his brother Dexter, who has since passed away, he was one of the first Black Santas in Howard County when they stepped into the role at Columbia Mall.
Durant knows it means something special to be a Black Santa in a predominantly Black area, but said that having a “good, Godly heart” comes before all else.
“You need good people to play Santa Claus no matter what race it is,” Santa Luke said. “I don’t want to put limits on just having only Black Santas in Black malls or white Santas in white malls. I want to see Black Santas in white malls, as well as white Santas in Black malls. You still got to get away from the color thing and just get good people to play that role, no matter where they’re at.”
As someone who has seen decades of his Santa appearances, Imperial-Trainor says Durant’s heart is what makes him so memorable.
“If he could, he would give every one of those children to visit him a gift, I mean, a real gift, a major one,” said Imperial-Trainor. “And of course, he can’t do that, so he does the best that he can by giving all his love that he can to children so that they see there is somebody that they can talk to about anything.”
“I’m just bawling because he can’t do it this year,” Imperial-Trainor said. “I know it’s killing him, but he’s trying to keep a smile on his face.”
Many people in Durant’s life have stepped into the duty of being Santa (or one of Santa’s helpers) at some point or another: Imperial-Trainor and her husband have been playing a role for decades; Durant’s son Shannon was a dancing Santa at Lexington Market for several years; and his other son, his brother, and his nephew have all been Santa, elves, and more.
Shannon has been part of the Santa team his whole life, joining his father at the mall and on the volunteer hospital tours they do together. He described his father as a “special, loving dad who truly cares for people.”
He learned so much from his father about being humble, being positive, caring for others, being disciplined, how to carry himself in front of others, and how to speak to and connect with people, Shannon said.
“When I see my son, who’s 26 now … he reminds me so much of my father, too,” Shannon said. “What my father passed on to me, you know, and I’m able to pass on to my son, and it’s just those little things and like just being a good person.”
When he’s able to don the red suit again, Durant said he can’t wait to “greet and embrace as many people as I can.”
He’s most looking forward to picking up the spirit of kids who come to him feeling anything less than cheerful. Durant’s Santa team operates under the mantra that they must “make people feel better after leaving us than receiving us.”
He hopes that when Baltimore looks back on his legacy as Santa, they remember that “he gave it his best, and he did the very, very best he could do.”
“We’ve done this work throughout the years,” Durant said, “and we’ll do it ‘till God calls me home.”