Santa Wayne, a beloved Christmastime fixture at Marley Station Mall, dies at 77

Most people only saw Wayne McCrea once a year, when he was in his costume and jolly, waiting to ask children visiting Marley Station Mall whether they had been naughty or nice.

But Cara McAdams knew her uncle wasn’t just Santa at Christmastime. For him, it was a lifestyle: His entire closet was red, down to his underwear, except for when “Santa’s on vacation.” Then the Hawaiian shirts came out.

His red car was his sleigh. His white beard wasn’t a prop. When kids stared at him in public, he’d hand them tiny flashlight keychains he carried in his pockets to remind them that Santa was always watching.

“Everybody knows him as Santa,” McAdams said. “He was such a kind man. He wanted to make the kids smile, and that made him smile. That was his reward, I think — just making people happy and smiling, and that’s why he loved Christmas so much.”

When his health started failing late last year, all he could think about was the possibility that he was letting the kids down. His family reassured him he wasn’t. In the 36 years he spent as Santa Wayne, he touched thousands of children’s lives — so much so that many of them later brought their own children to take photos with him at the mall.

Santa Wayne died Thursday at 3:33 p.m. of heart complications. He was 77.

It’s hard to imagine Santa Wayne before he put on the red suit, but the Arbutus resident didn’t pick it up until age 41. Born Aug. 27, 1948, he was the first of Jean and Hector McCrea’s two children. He and his sister, Cathy, were Army brats, McAdams said.

The family lived briefly in Germany, where a young Wayne loved to go sledding on luges. Back in the U.S., they often stayed in Rhode Island and New York, and eventually settled in Glen Burnie.

He went on to become a photographer for the Naval Academy. He was working that job, and a side gig at the mall movie theater, when a manager saw his white beard and asked if he’d like to be Marley Station’s Santa in 1989.

He said yes. At first, the mall was bustling with people, the lines long and filled with children — some giggling and some terrified — waiting for their photos with Santa. He’d sometimes make grand entrances accompanied by a magician.

But as the years went on, and big box stores and online retailers ate into foot traffic at the mall, Santa Wayne’s seasons grew quieter. It didn’t make him love his job any less — just made the days a little lonelier.

“I just love kids,” Santa Wayne told The Banner in 2024. “And, if you listen to them, they’ll love you back. They’ll tell you about anything.”

In the off seasons, he stepped in as Santa for various events and marketing campaigns.

Kayla Zulka, a 31-year-old Glen Burnie resident, has pictures of her 9-year-old self sitting on Santa Wayne’s lap in 2003, his hands wrapping the little girl in a hug. When she had her son, Malcolm, in 2022, she knew she had to get his first Christmas photos with her childhood Santa.

“That was just a full circle moment,” Zulka said. “I’m glad we’ll have those photos to hold on to his memory. He’s been an important part of so many Christmases for so many.”

She last visited Santa Wayne in 2024 with her friend Heather Wood and both of their children.

“He had a gift for bringing the magic of Christmas to life,” Wood said. “He was a staple for our families, sharing so many conversations, smiles and photos over the years.”

Rob Frost moderates a Facebook group for locals to post their memories about the mall. After a post about Santa Wayne looking bored and lonely in the mall went viral in 2024, Frost asked members for their old pictures with him and put together a digital photo album as a Christmas gift from the group.

“You could tell how touched he was by getting the present,” Frost said.

The next year, when there was chatter that Santa Wayne was having health problems, he put together a GoFundMe to support his recovery from upcoming heart surgery. The group raised about $6,500.

“He was there almost as long as the mall has been there,” Frost said. “The mall has went from being crowded and successful to almost empty at this point, but Christmastime came around, and everybody still wanted to go see Santa Wayne.”

He had his surgery Dec. 26.

Santa Wayne’s impact went beyond the mallgoers and the children who whispered their Christmas wishlists in his ear. He inspired other Santas, too — like Matt Stone, a 53-year-old Pasadena resident who started his own ventures as Santa five years ago.

Stone took his sons to visit Santa Wayne when they were young. He didn’t understand that the job wasn’t always as cheerful as it seemed until he started doing it himself.

“People see the red suit, the beard, the laughter and the photographs,” Stone wrote on social media. “What they don’t always see is the person behind it all. The hours spent creating wonder. The quiet conversations. The nervous children who leave smiling. The parents who need a little magic as much as their kids do.”

Of course it was rewarding, he said, but sometimes it was heavy, too — to hear children’s hopes and dreams, their stories of sadness and stress.

“I can’t even imagine how many stories like that he had to carry,” Stone said. “And with Marley being what it is these days, the fact that he continued coming back speaks volumes of his character.”

Santa Wayne’s family members are still working on memorial plans to celebrate his life. They want to incorporate as much red as they can.

In the meantime, his nephew’s wife, Beth Montgomery-Smith, wrote a poem to honor Uncle Wayne. It reads, in part:

Back into the arms of his beautiful wife,

The ultimate prize at the end of this life.

Just look to the stars twinkling bright,

His magic is all around us tonight.

“Christmas in the area won’t be the same without him,” Stone said.

Banner reporter Julie Scharper contributed to this story.

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