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When Santa wears a qaspeq

Jake Hawk started out as a substitute Santa, asked to fill in at a party when the Santa who was supposed to show up suddenly cancelled.
Photo by Rhonda McBride
Jake Hawk started out as a substitute Santa, asked to fill in at a party when the Santa who was supposed to show up suddenly cancelled.

Santa is one of the favorite attractions at the Alaska Native Heritage Center's annual holiday bazaar and at Christmas parties held by a number of Native Groups.

"I don't know, I've never been anything but a Native Santa, really," Jake Hawk said, peering out from a qaspeq, a traditional hooded Yup'ik overshirt that his girlfriend made with plush fire engine red fabric.

"I got the white fringes on the cuffs. I got the white fringes on the pocket of my qaspeq. And then I have the red pants and some white fur around my black boots," Hawk said. "I don’t have a hat, but I wear the hood — and it’s got some fringe around it, so it keeps me nice and warm."

Although this Santa may have a different outfit, his magic is in the eye of the beholder.

"Wanna sit on my lap, and we'll take a picture?" Hawk said to a five-year-old girl who shyly approached the stage.

"Oh, there you go," he said, as she settled into his lap. She tells Santa she wants a doll and a doll house.

All day long, there's a steady stream of children who have sought him out. Even elders seemed to enjoy having their picture taken with Santa Claus.

"I helped a lady out of a wheelchair to sit on my lap earlier.," Hawk said. "I got a bunch of hugs back there. They loved the qaspeq."

You might say Jake became an accidental Santa at a Christmas party a few years ago. The Santa who was supposed to show up, suddenly called to cancel. So as not to disappoint all the kids, Jake was begged to be a substitute Santa.

Before he could refuse, he was handed the other Santa's red suit — and even though it was a little too tight, Jake discovered the role of Santa was a perfect fit.

"Walking through here," Jake said, as he pointed around the crowded room, "getting hugs, just randomly from little kids, I love that."

One little boy couldn't stop coming back to see Santa.

"How many times did you see me today?" Hawk said to the boy seated his lap, who only answers, "Yes."

"Yes. It’s been a lot," Hawk tells the boy gently but in a hearty voice asks him once again want he wants for Christmas.

"Big Legos," the boy answers. "Lego City."

"Do you want the whole city or just a portion of it?" Santa replied.

Jake Hawk says he tries to sprinkle his Santa visits with Native words, which help to make the kids feel comfortable.
Photo by Rhonda McBride
Jake Hawk says he tries to sprinkle his Santa visits with Native words, which help to make the kids feel comfortable.

And when the children step down, Hawk tries to speak to them in their Native language.

"I'll say quyana and gunalchéesh and howa," words of thanks in Yup'ik, Lingít and Haida. "They like it when I speak some of their language," says Hawk, who is a mix of Lingít and Haida.

Although he recently switched out the qaspeq for a red blanket at a Tlingit and Haida Council Christmas party, which is more in keeping with his Southeast heritage, he says he enjoys jumping on stage in his Santa qaspeq and dancing to the beat of a Yup'ik drum — all part of that timeless rhythm of giving and receiving.

Rhonda McBride has a long history of working in both television and radio in Alaska, going back to 1988, when she was news director at KYUK, the public radio and TV stations in Bethel, which broadcast in both the English and Yup’ik languages.