Santa Visits Hall-Woodward Elementary While Blitzen & Co. Wait on the Roof

Nora Pauley

When Santa asked the students in Nora Pauley’s kindergarten class who knew the names of his reindeer, Pauley raised her hand along with many of the children.

Her favorite reindeer is Blitzen. “I think the name has a lot of personality,” Pauley said.

In most of the kindergarten and pre-kindergarten classes that Santa visited at Hall-Woodward Elementary School this morning, the response was universally enthusiastic.

Lots of students shouted “Santa!” as he came through the door. In Karen Martin’s kindergarten class, one girl jumped up and down while saying, “Goody! Goody!”

As a gift, Santa gave each student a wrapped book so the greetings were soon followed by such comments as “I got a present.”

And, when he left each class, there were lots of “Thank you, Santa.”

In one class, a boy said, “That was so cool!”

In Pauley’s class, though, Santa had a heckler. “You’re not Santa,” said one little girl.

Santa knows exactly who he is, though, so he was unfazed. And, once the girl opened her gift, she moved on to more important matters, such as flipping through her new book.  

Santa with Jennifer Cobb, Susan Paschal and Tina Long

Each year, the people at the Greater Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce invite Santa to visit Hall-Woodward, and, each year, he accepts. Before catching up with students in first and second grade, he visits the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms accompanied by such elves as Jennifer Cobb and Tina Long of the Chamber of Commerce and Susan Paschal, the school’s curriculum coordinator for grades kindergarten through second grade.

This was the last year that Paschal will be making the rounds with him, though. She is retiring and Friday is her last day.

“The grandchildren are calling me,” she told Santa.

In several of the rooms, Santa checked to see whether students knew what his favorite snack and beverage is. Pretty much all the children already knew it was chocolate chip cookies and milk. The students in one class were stumped, though, when he asked what reindeer like for a snack. Carrots, he told them. So now they know.

When Santa came into Emily Terrell’s kindergarten class, students were making holiday cards to take home to family members on Friday. There, a boy asked Santa to “Ho! Ho! Ho!” He did.

Santa with Principal Celena Tribby

Principal Celena Tribby stopped in to say hello to Santa. Her wish? “I want all my babies to be safe and happy and I want my teachers to get a pay raise.”

In Jennifer Miller’s class, a boy told Santa that he had heard that Santa couldn’t eat peanut butter. Santa told him that we wasn’t allergic or anything but that he did avoid it. “It gets stuck in my beard.”

In the hall outside Jeannette Morrison’s class, you could hear students singing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” When he came in, they sang it for him again.

“We love it when Santa comes,” Morrison said.

Morrison told Santa that she had told students that he had his ear. “I use it as leverage,” she said.

Santa assured the students that he pays close attention to what every teacher says. “All the teachers are my elves,” he said.

In Shanda Morrison’s pre-kindergarten class, Santa sat down in a rocking chair. When it was time to go, the chair came up with him.

“This might have been a mistake,” Santa said.

Once he was safely extracted from the rocking chair, it was off to the gym where Santa handed out suckers and pencils to the first- and second-graders, and Paschal, in case anyone was wondering, mentioned that the second-grade teachers were participating in Ugly Sweater Day.