BY MILES LAYTON

EDENTON — Each holiday season, when small towns across northeastern North Carolina begin stringing lights across fences, trimming waterfront docks, and raising towering artificial trees in the center of public squares, one man’s schedule fills faster than anyone else’s in the region.

For Gary Lico, known to hundreds of local families simply as “Santa,” aka, the Inner Banks Santa, the holiday season has become a marathon — part community service, part performance art, and part joyful chaos.

“This is when things really start to pop,” Lico said, looking ahead to the coming weeks. “It’s a big deal. It’s a big deal.”

Lico wasn’t talking about any single event. He was talking about all of them. Lico’s calendar features nearly 40 engagements, stacked tightly enough that some days require long drives, rapid costume changes, three separate appearances, and the careful choreography of a man who knows he has only a few seconds to make a lasting memory for a nervous toddler or a wide-eyed elementary schooler.

“I love it. I love it,” he said. “Saturday is the big one. That’s the tree lighting. That’s the real deal.”

Edenton’s Kickoff to Christmas will start at 4 p.m. Saturday with the annual tree lighting and Santa’s arrival at 5:30 p.m. The meet-and-greet with Santa will start at 6 p.m. and, if interested, the flotilla of lighted boats will start at 6:15 p.m.  

The tree lighting — which draws families from rooftops to riverbanks — will include “the marching band, cheerleaders, and the choir,” he said. Lico warned parents that crowds arrive early and linger late. “Santa will stay there till the last child leaves. That’s what I’m there for.”

And don’t forget Hertford’s Grand Illumination between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Friday in front of the Perquimans County Courthouse — Santa, thanks for the reminder.

Hundreds of Children, Four Hours, One Santa

Lico never tries to estimate turnout for each event, but he remembers the extremes.

“A few hundred,” he said when asked how many children he typically sees in a single appearance. But there are outliers. At Perquimans Central School, the line once felt endless.

“One day… I saw 400 kids inside of four hours,” he said. “It’s constant. It’s nonstop.”

Those hours, he said, aren’t physically exhausting so much as emotionally dense. Every child has something to say, something to ask, something to hope for — and Santa has to respond.

His approach is deliberately simple so he can give every kid genuine attention.

“I ask them two things: ‘What is your name?’ and ‘What would you like for Christmas?’ I have just a few moments to make a connection…eye contact, a gentle touch or a hug, if it’s offered. That is pretty much it.”

But the answers aren’t always simple.

“The strangest thing I’ve been asked?” Lico said. “To bring my grandfather back or make my mama happy.”

He still remembers the face of the mom standing behind one of those children. “I looked at mom and said, ‘Boy, that kid’s right.’ And she looked ready for a fight. Just hard.”

He never promises the impossible. Instead, he leans on comfort.

“That’s not something Santa can do,” he tells them. “But thank you for telling me about it, and I’ll pray for you.”

40 Events, 23 Straight Days, One Suit

For Lico, the holiday season is booked almost with the precision of a touring musician.

This year’s schedule includes “photo shoots, home visits and events and parties,” he said — about 40 total. “Twenty-four of them are between the 30th of November and the 23rd of December.”

The busiest weekends are a blur.

“Saturday I have… breakfast with Santa at 8:00,” he said. “I have a cruise on the Albemarle Queen at noon. And then the tree lighting at 5:00.”

Sunday brings “three hours of photos in the studio.”

Asked how he physically handles so many appearances, he paused.

“You just do it, man. I feel like doing it. It’s not that bad,” he said, though he acknowledged that sometimes the pace catches up to him. “Do I get tired? Yeah. And frankly, I get concerned about it.”

His coping strategy: “Naps when you can. Airborne all the time. Vitamins — and make sure they wipe their nose before they see you,” he said with a laugh.

Still, he insists he loves it, even the hard parts.

“Some days you come home and go, ‘Whew.’ But it’s worth it. And a lot of us feel a little down in January,” he added. “’Cause you get a couple of months of kids loving you to death.”

The Gallery of Christmas Past: Inside the Photo Studio

Lico works closely with local photographer Anna Spruill and Karen Skaff, who’ve fine-tuned the dynamics of photographing Santa’s youngest visitors. Instead of the famous lap photo, the result is often an image of pure joy: a laughing toddler sprinting across the set while Santa reaches from behind.

“She wasn’t afraid,” he said of one young girl’s photo. “We just caught her running, so we turned it into a shot.”

Studio work, Lico said, is surprisingly delicate. He must shift between poses, voices, levels of energy and emotional sensitivity, often within seconds.

“You’re reading kids from the moment they walk in. You see who’s holding tighter to mom’s leg. You see who’s staring at the beard. You see who’s already halfway to the cookies,” he said. “You adjust for all of it.”

When his son is in town, he joins the operation as Buddy the Elf — a dynamic that adds playful mischief to Lico’s Santa persona.

“When he’s in town, he’s Buddy the Elf,” Lico said. “The kids love it. That energy… it’s great.”

Behind the Beard: A Hobby With a Microphone

When the season winds down each evening — or in the rare mornings when he has a few free minutes — Lico flips into a different role. Off camera and out of costume, he becomes Gary Mitchell, a streaming-radio host with a growing following.

What began as a casual message from an old friend turned into a full second vocation.

“It was started by a guy in Grand Rapids, Michigan who was in radio there for many years,” Lico said of the station. “Anyone can start a streaming radio station… this computer does everything.”

A friend from college invited him to try a practice shift.

“He said, ‘Yeah, I’m doing this radio thing now.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding me? I would love to do that.’ Boom — within two days I was hired.”

The station trained him for two weeks on its automation software. Then he landed a trial 1 a.m. slot.

“It went okay,” he said. “Because they gave me a slot right away.”

The station recently asked him to take on another three-hour weekly show beginning in January.

“It’s a blast,” he said. “I have a calling and a hobby. The calling is Santa, the hobby is radio.”

How the Magic Works

Lico’s radio shows aren’t streamed live. They are produced through “voice-tracking,” a system widely used in both small stations and national networks. The software loads a list of songs — usually “17, 20 songs or so” — and leaves gaps where the host records short on-air segments.

“And it’ll have spaces for you to put in a voice track. ‘Hi, this is Gary Mitchell. It’s… quarter past the hour. Hope you’re having a great day.’ Boom.”

The radio show, The Gary Mitchell Programme, from the Gary Mitchell studio high atop the 2nd floor of the Gary Mitchell building, currently runs from 9 AM to noon, Monday and Thursday, with a special Santa-hosted Christmas show Christmas week.

The program then stitches the music and commentary into a seamless broadcast that sounds fully live.

But Lico doesn’t let the software pick everything.

“I can delete any of those songs and I can put in any song that’s in the library,” he said. “Each one of us that does a show is our own program director, our own music director.”

His playlists explore everything from Motown to obscure holiday B-sides.

“Name it,” he said. “Santana? Got it. Allman Brothers? Got it. Rod Stewart and The Faces? Got it… From the ’50s, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra. From the ’60s, Hendrix… The Box Tops.”

He especially loves digging for what he calls “the forgotten gems.”

“I try to look for the obscure stuff,” he said. “The Christmas show has all the obscure stuff.”

The only twist? His name.

“They wanted something… either something really cool,” he said, laughing. “‘Gary Mitchell’ does, but you know, I don’t care. I just get to do this.”

Balancing Two Callings

Juggling two identities — Santa by day, radio host by night — might overwhelm some people. But for Lico, each role seems to recharge the other.

“Santa is the part that’s bigger than me,” he said. “It’s something I’m called to do. Radio? That’s just pure fun.”

He said the microphone gives him something to lean on during the off-season, when he’s no longer surrounded by children, parents, music, costumes and photo sessions.

“When January hits… it’s quiet,” he said. “Radio fills that space.”

A Calendar of Cheer: The December Run

Lico flipped through his upcoming schedule with both pride and disbelief.

“On the 16th, Van Dee Realty… the Perquimans Library at the 18th… Swimme and Son’s Christmas party on the 19th… and then a home visit on the 20th.” There was also that Regulator Marine party with a Coast Guard appearance next week.

After that, the pace begins to taper. But only slightly.

“Some of these are ones I’ve done for years,” he said. “Some are brand new. Some are families that just want Santa to come by for 15 minutes. Those are fun.”

The season ends only when he says it does.

“I shave the beard. I trim the beard,” he said with a grin. “That’s when you know it’s over.”

Why He Keeps Doing It

For Lico, the physical work, the long hours, the risk of catching every winter bug imaginable — none of it outweighs the privilege he feels when kneeling beside a child or leaning in for a photo.

“All I know is I’m so grateful to be called to do it,” he said. “I’m having a ball.”

He paused, thinking of the kids who rush him, the ones who freeze, the ones who whisper secrets they can’t tell anyone else.

“Those moments,” he said. “That’s why you do it.”