Winnipeg made this 10-foot Santa a beloved institution – and banded together to save him

Right now, he’s dressed in his true-to-form garb: velvety red suit with trimmed white fur, matching pompom-tipped hat, black belt, gold buckle, silvery-white mustache and beard, the look completed with a pair of rickety glasses.

But even when it isn’t Christmastime, one of Winnipeg’s favourite Santas is still spreading cheer in various other outfits across the seasons. Greeting passersby on Nairn Avenue, a major thoroughfare connecting downtown to the eastern suburbs, he is visible from hundreds of metres away, every single day, come rain, shine or Prairie blizzard.