Local Santa redefines ‘fat man’ image
In Seaford and Wantagh, one sure sign that the holidays are on the way is that Scott Lannan, a.k.a. “Santa Cause,” can be seen with increasing frequency.
Lannan was first spotted in his trademark Santa suit in mid-November, cycling north on Seamans Neck Road in Seaford, smiling and waving. He was seen again a few days later, pedaling the other way on Wantagh Avenue. Last weekend he was at a local hairdresser, having his red beard bleached white one last time in preparation for the holidays.
Lannan said he has spent much of his career as Santa biking in and around Seaford and Wantagh, and playing volleyball at Jones Beach. This year, however, the Wantagh native said he has spent more time promoting his cause by cycling around New York City.
Lannan began his Santa Cause campaign 15 years ago, at age 28. Until then, his life was a harrowing series of epileptic seizures that had begun when he was a child. Finally, after one 20-minute grand mal seizure, he underwent a procedure in which doctors stimulated the vagus nerve, a cranial nerve that interfaces with the parasympathetic control of the heart and lungs. Using cranial implants, they were able to control the episodes.
“After that, my seizures just kind of stopped,” Lannan said. “I was able to get off the medications I’d been on since I was 7. It was like a whole new life.”
Lannan has not been seizure-free since then, and epilepsy has continued to bring challenges. He cannot drive a car or use power tools, he said, and he still suffers smaller seizures, due in part to the head injuries he sustained in falls as a child. He cannot work full-time, but works part-time with tree surgeons helping to dig out stumps.
He had his first seizure on his way to a childhood birthday party. After that, he had numerous grand mal seizures, regaining consciousness in various hospitals, as well as experiencing less-severe episodes — so-called dropsy seizures — during which he lost consciousness and fell. Simply taking a shower could bring on a seizure. “I suffered bad as a child,” he said.
“Growing up with epilepsy, you always want to be part of everything,” Lannan added. “I’d be doing things and pretending I wasn’t sick, and then I’d get hurt. I always wanted to be like other people.”
Epilepsies are neurological disorders ranging from relatively benign to life-threatening, according to the National Institutes of Health’s Neurological Disorders and Stroke Institute. One in 26 Americans is affected by epilepsy, which is incurable.
After receiving the implants and experiencing fewer seizures, Lannan said, he wanted to help others who were less fortunate. That was the impetus to dress up as Santa Claus. “I love those smiles,” he said. “Just dressing up in a red suit and making people smile is an incredible feeling.”
He was given his first suit in 2005. At his grandmother’s funeral, an aunt asked him what he was doing with his life. “For some reason I mentioned Santa,” he said. “I still don’t know why.” The aunt happened to have a new Santa suit, and she mailed it to Lannan. He received the suit on a Friday, and he wore it to a local football game the following Sunday night.
At the time, he was living in Long Beach, and he became a de facto epilepsy advocate. He spoke with doctors about the benefits he believed medical marijuana had for epileptics, and he contacted those he believed could help spread the word, including the Epilepsy Foundation. He wrote letters to the American Civil Liberties Union and the White House. “When I say advocate, I was willing to die just to help these people, because we’re second-class citizens,” Lannan said. “The medical community treats us horribly. We got issues with civil rights that most people are shocked about.”
In December 2007, Lannan traveled to Aruba for a beach tennis tournament. He had picked up the game a short time before with his friend Alex Jordan. He and Jordan had done well in a tournament earlier in the year, he said, and were invited to Aruba by a local team. The Moomba Beach Bar, in the town of Palm Beach, gave him room and board while he was there. He played in the tournament, and got to dress up as Santa as well.
Because of the reactions he experienced as Santa, Lannan fell in love with the country, he said. He returned to Aruba the following May, staying in the apartment close to Moomba Beach where he had lived the year before. While there, he had a seizure, and during his recovery, he asked himself what a real Santa would do in today’s society. He concluded that the iconic Christmas character would help sick children.
Throughout his years of dressing up, he has tried to show Santa as the opposite of an obese old man, recasting him as vibrant and fit. When Lannan dons his suit to ride his bike or play volleyball, he is seeking to promote a healthy Santa Claus, he said. The historical figure on whom the jolly fat man is based was a fourth-century social reformer and monk named St. Nicholas, who was archbishop of Myra in Lycia, a region of modern-day Turkey.
Lannan said he would like to see some of the billions of dollars that are spent each year on gifts and holiday parties go to medical research for sick children instead. “How can I enjoy any aspect of my life if I don’t think I’m doing everything I can to get this campaign started?” he said. When parents approach him “to explain the joy their child has when they see me riding as Santa, it not only helps prove my theory behind the Santa Cause, but makes it so much easier for me to enjoy it as well.”
Lannan does not solicit donations, although he will accept them if offered. “It’s not about me,” he said of his reluctance to promote himself. When weather permits, he commutes into New York City, where he biked 54 miles last Sunday. He promotes Santa all year round by playing basketball locally, biking and being active in general — always in his suit. He said he would like to do even more on the beaches by portraying Santa being active.
“I figured . . . my seizures stopped for a reason,” he said. “And then with the Santa suit, I realized what that reason was. And I try not to take it for granted. I still get bad days . . . but it’s definitely given me a focus on how to live a better life.”
Alexandra Dieckmann contributed to this story.
