GALLATIN VALLEY — Legacy: it’s what you leave behind.
This Christmas, there’s one legacy that’s especially meaningful in the community – that of Stan Veltkamp – who was Santa for about 40 years in Gallatin Valley and even out in Billings, Clarkston, Helena, and more.
Stan’s Mrs. Claus, Marty Veltkamp, recalls his special journey as Santa.
“Sometimes he’d be driving through Manhattan, and one of the little kids would go, ‘Mommy, mommy! Santa Claus is driving a car!’”
The heartwarming story of Stan Veltkamp, who became Manhattan's Santa after growing a beard for a 1981 theater production and spent 40 years bringing Christmas magic to kids!
Marty Veltkamp lives in Manhattan, and so did her husband, Stan Veltkamp, who moved to Montana from Michigan.
“We’re pretty much natives,” said Mart Veltkamp
Stan was Santa in Manhattan and the surrounding area starting in the 1980s.
“It kind of all started in ’81,” said Marty. “We were in the barbershop groups.”
Stan and Marty’s barbershop groups would put on a show every year. In 1981, that was Fiddler on the Roof.
As part of the show, they wanted Stan to play the character Tevye, who has a bushy gray beard.
“Well, he didn’t have a beard, and so three weeks before the show, he started growing this beard, and it came in beautiful,” said Marty.
“After the show, he said, ‘I like this beard. I don’t have to shave.’”
“I said ‘Well, I like you better with it than without,’” said Marty. “He said, ‘Well, that does it, I will wear a beard.’”
As Stan's beard got grayer, people started saying that he could be Santa.
“He was pretty intrigued by that idea,” said Marty.
Stan took over the role of Santa in Manhattan in the mid-80s. From the stroll to the Manhattan Bank, he was there.
“It just kind of mushroomed,” said Marty. “He was loving it so much, and he just kept looking for more and more.”
As time passed by, Stan perfected his Santa image.
“At first we’d have to, kind of, whiten his beard a little, but then it just got beautifully snowy white, and he just fit the role so well,” said Marty.
“He was never as chubby as what Santa should be, so we’d take t-shirts and stuff them and put them under the suit,” she added.
“And he developed this chuckle. It wasn’t really a ho, ho, ho; it was a chuckle,” she said. “And people would just get so thrilled with it because it was so much better than that scary big ho, ho, ho.”
As Santa, Stan had just a few rules. One of those being: no commercial appearances.
“He would not do the mall,” said Marty.
The other rule, Marty said: “He never charged a fee.”
Over the years, Marty estimates Stan saw thousands of kids as Santa.
“There were probably at least three generations of kids that he saw,” she said.
The one thing that kept him going for 40 years? Well, it was the kids.
“He loved the kids, absolutely loved the kids,” said Marty. “He said, ‘No kid should not be able to see Santa.’”
There’s one group of kids that was especially important to Stan: the kids at The Hyalite School.
“His very, very favorite job was at the Hyalite School, in the special needs class,” said Marty. “Those kids lived in his heart, and he said, ‘I don’t care if I can’t do any other one…I have to do that one.’”
The faculty and students share the same sentiment.
“Stan was the personification of the holidays,” said teacher Catherine Matthews, in an email to MTN News. “He brought kindness and joy to every child in our classroom and did so purely out of the goodness of his heart.”
“We were always so touched that our classroom held a special place in his heart, much like he holds a special place in our hearts to this day,” said Matthews.
Stan was committed to bringing that magic to the kids even when he was battling leukemia and kidney failure, despite the concerns of his doctor.
Stan’s last year as Santa was 2023. As to his legacy, Marty says it’s:
“His love.”
“He would drive in the snow, in the ice, and just go anywhere just for 10 minutes with those kids,” said Marty.
It’s a legacy that isn’t going anywhere.
“Thank you so much for still remembering him,” said Marty. “He was in our hearts but he’s still in the community’s heart.”
“I realize people leave us, and they're gone, but it’s kind of nice that he’s around for a while,” she added.
And for Marty:
“It’s going to be a hard year for me. This is the first year without him, the first year without my Santa," said Marty. “Mrs. Claus has got to get along without him for now, but he’s waiting for me."
