For the first time in decades, Chocolate Santa not taking photos for 2019 Christmas

For the first time in decades, Chocolate Santa not taking photos for 2019 Christmas

Fred Parker, known to many across New Orleans as Chocolate Santa or the 7th Ward Santa, has been posing for photos for generations.

by Mary Staes | November 25, 2019

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We hate to be Scrooge this Christmas, but we’re just the messenger here — the legendary Chocolate Santa is taking a break from pictures this year, according to the photo studio he closely works with.

Fred Parker, known to many across New Orleans as Chocolate Santa or the 7th Ward Santa, has been posing for photos for generations. Even before he was Santa, Parker was bringing kids Christmas cheer. In a 2009 article, he told NOLA.com when he was a bus driver he would treat his entire bus of kids to McDonald’s on the last day of school before Christmas break.

In a Nov. 23 post from Dennis Photofinish, the studio that works closely with Parker, it was announced that Parker wouldn’t be posing for Christmas portraits. The studio did, however, state there will still be photos with an African American Santa and the schedule for portraits would be up by Dec. 5.

An earlier photo shoot, sponsored by Dose of the Coast, was canceled in October due to Parker’s health.

Mary Staes

Mary Staes is Digital Content Lead for Very Local. She works with our freelancers and crafts content for our social media platforms and website. Before Very Local, she worked with CBS affiliate WWL-TV as a web producer and weekend assignment editor for about 4 years. She has also handled broadcast coverage for 160 Marine Reserve training facilities while she served as an active duty Marine. As a native New Orleanian, she takes being "very local" to heart. She loves being intertwined with the culture and figuring out how there are less than two degrees of separation between us all, whether we're natives or not.