Tony Minor’s been looking forward to Christmas all year long — but especially since the second week of November.

“That’s when I start growing my beard,” says Minor, an aptly merry 64-year-old who, with only days remaining until the big day, looks suspiciously like a right jolly old elf. In his self-chosen line of volunteer work, there’s an annual cadence to the pre-Christmas beard buildup. “When I get home from making my rounds, I’ll come in and throw some shaving cream on — and then it’ll all come off.”

Until then, though, Tony Minor is Santa Claus, and he embraces his red-suited role with an enthusiasm that lights up everyone he visits. For the past 12 years, Minor has donned the outfit and hopped in his sleigh each Christmas Eve to keep an ambitiously sweeping local itinerary: visiting elderly residents of as many nursing homes as he’s able to hit in one extended road trip through Cullman County and points beyond.

“I don’t do it because I have to; I do it because I want to,” he says. “No one’s paying me. As the years have gone on, I’ll get assistance from different businesses that donate the candy that I bring to the nursing homes. This year it’s Rusken Packaging. But I do it all from my heart. I think we should stop and look around and always be willing to help somebody out who’s in need.”

Children of course spy Tony when he’s out and about on Christmas Eve (he even makes a special detour through Walmart, when he has the time, “in case any kids and their parents want their picture made with Santa.”)

But the people whom Tony greets as Santa in nursing homes hail from the other end of life’s timeline, so their reactions to a visit from St. Nick would naturally be different…wouldn’t they?

“A lot of people in the nursing home have Alzheimer’s or something in their advanced age that gives them something like the mind of a child,” he says. “It’s like they’ve gone back to their second childhood. So when you walk in there, a lot of times the reaction is not that different from a child.

“One year, I walked into a room, and this woman has a baby doll in her hand. She’d been in a nursing home all of her life because of a physical disability. When she sees me as Santa Claus, well, she goes berserk. To her, Santa had really come to see her. She told me she hoped that Santa would bring her a coloring book, some crayons, and some finger nail polish. So, when I left there, I stopped by a Dollar General and bought all of those things, and took it right back on Christmas Day and gave it to her.”

Minor tries to visit as many nursing homes as he can each Christmas Eve, with recent round trips even venturing into neighboring counties with stops at Falkville and, this year, Double Springs.

“That’ll be a surprise for them, because the residents there have never seen me,” he says. “I’ll usually start right here in Hanceville and go all the way to Decatur. I’ll go until my candy runs out. What I try to do is let them know: ‘The Good Lord loves you. Santa Claus loves you, too.’ I want them to feel that they’re not pushed to the side and forgotten about.”

Minor’s a lifelong Cullman County resident; a Holly Pond graduate who lives with his family in the Center Hill community. Longtime followers of Alabama football might’ve seen Tony in a Santa suit — at least on TV — long before he ever began his annual nursing home tour: He’s been showing up, in costume, alongside fans in the stands at ‘Bama home games for years.

“I’m that Santa Claus you’ve seen at the Alabama games, and usually I do end up on television when I go,” he jokes. “I walk around the stadium for about three hours before the game, and usually I’m out there hollering ‘Roll Tide!’ Well, of course the crowd loves to see a man in a Santa suit yelling ‘Roll Tide,’ and one time someone in the stands yelled out, ‘Hey Santa — you want a beer?’

“Well, my response to that was, ‘No, sir. Santa Claus can’t be drinking beer or have his picture taken with any beers even at a football game…because he’s got an image to keep up. Santa’s not supposed to be doing any of that. For Santa, it’s a moral thing.”