Lake Forest Park Man Has Santa's Looks - And Heart -- He's Delighted To Play The Part

-- LAKE FOREST PARK

Ronald McDonald is getting used to the stares.

For almost a decade, since his hair turned white, the Lake Forest Park man has been getting double takes from children and adults stunned by the Santa Claus look-alike.

It's no wonder.

With curly white whiskers, wire-framed spectacles and suspenders over his er, natural "padding," McDonald, 66, is a dead-ringer for the North Pole's most famous resident.

"Even in July I see kids tug on their parents' coats and say, `Mom, dad, look! It's Santa Claus!' " said Lake Forest Park Towne Centre mall employee Shanna Millward.

25 YEARS AS SANTA

That uncanny resemblance is one reason why McDonald has been playing Santa for nearly 10 years at the "Pictures with Santa" station at the mall. His wife, Beryl, is the "Mrs. Claus" who snaps the pictures.

Oddly enough, the Santa role began for McDonald almost 25 years ago when his face was clean shaven and his hair was black. He was University Hospital's night-shift operating engineer when the pediatric ward's previous Santa decided to hang up his belt.

"They had to put cotton balls all over my face," he recalls with a chuckle, "and even then the kids knew it was me."

That's because McDonald already was a familiar face around the hospital. As a volunteer - and later a foster parent to a disabled boy - McDonald spent countless hours in the Seattle hospital's neonatal intensive care unit and other pediatric wards caring for sick youngsters.

And if McDonald's face is familiar to them, their faces are even more familiar to him. Dozens of sketches he has drawn of youngsters hospitalized at University Hospital and Children's Hospital and Medical Center adorn the McDonald's home. One of his drawings was on a Christmas card cover for Children's Hospital.

Other drawings featured prominently on the walls at the McDonald's home are of the eight children they babysit four days a week. Sundays are reserved for youngsters in their Sunday School class at Kenmore's Bethany Baptist Church.

DOWN TO 6 DAYS A WEEK

Despite this busy schedule, McDonald had to slow down a few years ago when he developed heart problems. He now tries to limit his Santa appearances to six days a week before Christmas.

Even so, visits on this Santa's knee aren't rushed.

"I remember a few years ago, the line of kids was getting really long and a little girl came up to me for her turn. She asked, `Will I get anything this year? Last year all I got was a rock,' " McDonald recalls. "Santa was in tears and I didn't care about that line. I just spent a lot of time with her telling her how important she was."

McDonald fills the Santa seat on the Towne Centre mall's lower level at Ballinger and Bothell ways from 2 to 7 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays; and noon to 5 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays until Christmas. Visits are free; instant photos are $7.

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