Santa Claus

Following a restoration, the historic 14-foot Livingston Santas will be displayed in Bloomington and Normal after being in storage for nearly 30 years.

The beloved, blushing Santas that once adorned a downtown Bloomington department store have been in storage for more than a decade — and are scheduled to be back on the town for the 2024 holiday season.

Most people know about the letter a little girl wrote to the New York Sun newspaper in 1897 asking whether Santa Claus is real. It prompted the famous response, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." Bloomington-Normal children encountered their own slightly more intrepid version of that idea a couple decades later.

John Stephens of Normal loves spending time with kids, but kids don’t know they’re spending time with him. That’s because this time of year Stephens wears a big, fluffy, white beard, and a red suit and hat.

An agreement between the Town of Normal and Santa Claus’ North Pole Headquarters is bringing phone calls from Santa for children in the community.

It took 49 years, but Normal's holiday festivities this December will include the town's first official African American Santas. In 1966, NAACP activist…