Santa Claus

Gary Kubiak was asked on a Wednesday conference call with Baltimore reporters to name his favorite Vonta Leach memory, and his answer surprisingly had nothing to do with his former fullback bowling over defenders. " Ask him if he brought his Santa Claus suit with him ," the Texans coach said. “Every year around Christmas, he would come out to the walk-through with a Santa Claus suit on that kind of brought a smile to everybody's face. Vonta is a joy to be around. Like I said, he is one of those guys that loves to play.

While your co-workers hover around the water cooler debating whether it matters if Mitt Romney bullied some kid in his youth, a formerly First World nation called Greece is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Why, you might ask, should Middle America pry its overworked eyes away from Jennifer Lopez gyrating around in a bodysuit on "American Idol" long enough to bother caring? Now replace "Greece" with "your bank. " It suddenly matters a little more, doesn't it? What if your bank couldn't loan you money, give you a mortgage or allow you to ring up credit-card debt, all because the bank abruptly had much less with which to leverage your lifestyle since Greece decided to finally pull itself off fiscal life support?

On Thursday, I asked Ravens fullback Vonta Leach whether he planned to don a Santa Claus suit for the team's walkthrough Friday. Leach had a tradition of doing this when he was with the Houston Texans, but he told me Thursday that he wasn't sure whether he would do it this year because he was one of the new guys. "I'll have to see what I've got in store. I'll have to talk to some of the guys to see if it's a good idea because I am new here,” Leach said. “But it's a way to break the tension a little bit and have some fun. " I've got good news: Santa came to Owings Mills on Friday ( thanks in part to a little pleading from Ray Rice )

On Thursday, I asked Ravens fullback Vonta Leach whether he planned to don a Santa Claus suit for the team's walkthrough Friday. Leach had a tradition of doing this when he was with the Houston Texans, but he told me Thursday that he wasn't sure whether he would do it this year because he was one of the new guys. "I'll have to see what I've got in store. I'll have to talk to some of the guys to see if it's a good idea because I am new here,” Leach said. “But it's a way to break the tension a little bit and have some fun. " I've got good news: Santa came to Owings Mills on Friday ( thanks in part to a little pleading from Ray Rice )

Wakefield gives, gives Keith Groller Morning Call A cynic might suggest that the ultimate sports Santa would be the owners of the Clippers, Pirates and Lions, who have been giving to fans in other cities for years by putting out inferior teams. But a true sports Santa is one who gives the gift of himself as well as his possessions. That's why I suggest Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield. Wakefield won MLB's Roberto Clemente Award this year after being nominated seven previous times.

"Look at you, you have a baby ... in a bar. " Baltimore area bars and restaurants are hosting family-friendly brunches and breakfasts with Santa Claus. We've heard from the Rams Head group. Each local Rams Head restaurants is hosting a Brunch with Santa. Rams Head Shore House on the Eastern Shore is holding its event on Saturday, Dec. 10. Rams Head Tavern Savage , Rams Head Tavern Annapolis , and Rams Head Roadhouse , also in Annapolis, are hosting their holiday brunches on Sunday, Dec. 11. The family brunch will include photo opportunities and mingling with Santa Claus, and the properties will be decorated for the holidays.

T he stern-looking St. Nicholas is out. The smiling Santa is in. This personnel move has occurred at Kirchmayr Chocolatiers in Timonium. Some of us see this as a change with larger implications, a shift of seasonal mood away from accountability (St. Nicholas records bad behavior in a book) and toward affability (Santa is perpetually jolly). For the past 20 years or so, the faces of the chocolate figures that Albert Kirchmayr and his crew crafted in their Baltimore area shop had a glower.

Santa Claus is coming to Westminster."The story here is that it's not going to be a gray Christmas downtown," Mayor W. Benjamin Brown reported yesterday.Santa's prospects for making the holiday scene looked grim this week after the City Council denied a request for aid from the Westminster Business Association.The merchants said they were short of money, and asked the council to donate $240 to pay Santa's salary for several Saturday visits between Thanksgiving and Christmas.The council rejected the request on the recommendation of its finance committee, headed by Councilman Stephen R. Chapin Sr. Mr. Chapin said that making the donation would set a precedent.

We got good news and bad news on the ethics front at City Hall on Monday. The good news: The city has decided to discontinue the ill-advised Holly Trolley event, a thinly disguised and poorly managed taxpayer-funded Yuletide tradition of political aggrandizement for Mayor Sheila Dixon. The bad news: City officials are claiming that this decision has nothing to do with the revelations about the event in Mayor Dixon's recently concluded theft and embezzlement trial. That means either they're lying or completely oblivious to reality.

ROVANIEMI, Finland -- It all started in Asia Minor, now Turkey. A good-hearted bishop named Nicholas, the legend goes, saved poor girls from prostitution by throwing bags of gold coins through their windows and down a chimney.Over the next 1,700 years, with a little help from Dutch settlers in North America and poet Clement Clarke Moore, St. Nicholas became a merry old gent with a white beard and red suit who spends most of Christmas giving heaps of toys to good little girls and boys.Today, any child can see Santa by taking a short ride to the local shopping mall, from Tokyo to Towson.

At Sykesville's Merry Main Street holiday celebration early in December, Burke Holbrook and his buddy Benjamin Skalka seemed like just two of the many kids that night enjoying the sights and sounds of the holiday season. The two 5-year-olds attended the festivities with their parents, walked along the decorated Main Street, enjoyed the town's Christmas tree and visited Santa Claus as part of their preparations for Christmas. But Christmas 2011 has a special meaning for these two, who started their lives a world away, literally, in an orphanage in Nepal.

It's the last full weekend before Christmas. Take a break from the shopping, trimming and preparations with, what else, some good pig meat. Midtown BBQ and Brew is scheduled to open on Friday. Tony Harrison, the co-owner and chef, was thinking about serving up a whole roasted pig every Friday, starting this Friday. Doesn't he know Sunday is National Sucking Pig Day? The last Baltimore Farmer's Market of the year is Sunday. This is the week to grab a Beef Barons pit-beef-and sausage combo sandwich without waiting in too long of a line, buy some garlands, wreaths and handmade ornaments, and to wish your favorite farmers and vendors a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Fresh & Green, a grocery chain that took over eight former SuperFresh locations in our area, is offering a promotion Saturday -- Dec. 10 -- to give away wreaths to the first 100 customers at each of the stores. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Even if you don't get a free wreath, Fresh & Green is offering other holiday festivities such as a “meet and greet with Santa Claus” and a kids' cookie decorating workshop. Fresh & Green locations in Baltimore are 1020 W. 41 st St. and 222 N. Charles Street.

"Look at you, you have a baby ... in a bar. " Baltimore area bars and restaurants are hosting family-friendly brunches and breakfasts with Santa Claus. We've heard from the Rams Head group. Each local Rams Head restaurants is hosting a Brunch with Santa. Rams Head Shore House on the Eastern Shore is holding its event on Saturday, Dec. 10. Rams Head Tavern Savage , Rams Head Tavern Annapolis , and Rams Head Roadhouse , also in Annapolis, are hosting their holiday brunches on Sunday, Dec. 11. The family brunch will include photo opportunities and mingling with Santa Claus, and the properties will be decorated for the holidays.

John Waters doesn't love all holidays. "I think Santa Claus should team up with the tooth fairy and kill the Easter bunny," he says. But Christmas? Christmas he loves unconditionally, without irony. For the past decade, he's been touring every December with a show that's part stand-up, part monologue, part pep-talk. During the holidays, he likes to think of himself as a motivational speaker. "Some people hate [Christmas] or don't believe in it. I know some people find it a very stressful time.

Gary Kubiak was asked on a Wednesday conference call with Baltimore reporters to name his favorite Vonta Leach memory, and his answer surprisingly had nothing to do with his former fullback bowling over defenders. " Ask him if he brought his Santa Claus suit with him ," the Texans coach said. “Every year around Christmas, he would come out to the walk-through with a Santa Claus suit on that kind of brought a smile to everybody's face. Vonta is a joy to be around. Like I said, he is one of those guys that loves to play.

When is a novelty no longer a novelty?Consider the case of the animated Rock Santa Collectible, last holiday season's sleeper, this year's emblem of X-mas excess.Before the seasonal hype began in earnest, the Santa quartet -- a cowboy Holly Jolly Santa, a Coca Cola-toting Santa and two traditional Santas, one black, one white, that groove to "Jingle Bell Rock" or "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" -- seemed the ideal gift item for your cynical brother-in-law. Plug Santa in, his bells jingle and belly jiggles in synergistic schmaltz and irony.

Chargers@Titans 7:30 p.m. [NFL Network] We always thought that Mr. December was Santa Claus, but with 17 consecutive wins in the last month of the year dating to 2006, San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers, left, also knows how to deliver.

Wakefield gives, gives Keith Groller Morning Call A cynic might suggest that the ultimate sports Santa would be the owners of the Clippers, Pirates and Lions, who have been giving to fans in other cities for years by putting out inferior teams. But a true sports Santa is one who gives the gift of himself as well as his possessions. That's why I suggest Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield. Wakefield won MLB's Roberto Clemente Award this year after being nominated seven previous times.

Breathes there a man with soul so dead he hasn't felt better about himself after dropping a donation in a Salvation Army red kettle? Apparently so. Responding in part to shoppers' aversion to being asked for money, Giant Food has cut back the amount of time Salvation Army workers can ring their bells outside some of their area supermarkets. This holiday season, the bell ringers at some Giant stores are limited to four-hour stretches for 12 days in November and December. Last year, the ringers worked about 40 days at stores during those two months.