Ask anyone who knew Jim Brown and they’ll tell you he was tailored-made to play Santa.
“Just his love of children and dressing up. He was just happy, jolly and loved to put smiles on people’s faces,” said daughter Annette Legros.
Echoed longtime town councillor and friend John Challinor, “His physical stature, but also his personality… he had a great sense of humour, a great laugh. All the things you think of about Santa when you’re a kid, Jim embodied that.”
Passing away peacefully April 27 at 84 after a short battle with cancer, Brown was many things to many people.
A carpenter and Town of Milton public works employee, he was a vintage car enthusiast, the St. Clair Masonic Lodge’s unofficial historian and the go-to guy to help build or repair just about anything.
Loved being Santa
But come Christmas, he had a singular focus – embracing his inner Jolly Old Saint Nicholas.
He played the role for decades at various neighbourhood and downtown events – including the early years of Miracle on Main Street – as well as for organizations like Community Living North Halton.
Well-suited as he was for the part, Brown harboured one trait that wasn’t so Santa-like.
“One year we had actual reindeer at Miracle and we’re sitting there trying to get them to come closer to us for a camera shot,” recalled longtime friend Troy Newton. “Jim leans in and whispers that he’s afraid of them. But we’re on TV so we kind of tried to hide that.”
The two had forged a friendship back when Newton was managing the Fifth Wheel and Brown was working with the public works department, painting the lines in the parking lot.
Years later when Newton struck out on his own to open Troy’s Diner, he got a first-hand look into Brown’s generous spirit.
“About a month before I opened he shows up one day with a friend, Jack I believe, and says ‘So the rumour’s true, you’ve got your own place.’”
“The next day they show up with their toolbelts and just get to work on helping with renovations.”
Retired by that time, Brown stayed on for weeks, fixing the electrical work and plumbing, as well as pitching in with overall maintenance.
Said Newton, “Basically he did everything I didn’t know how to do. And in typical Jim fashion, he wouldn’t take a cent. When you’re first starting out and don’t have any money, it’s nice to have people there like that.”
With time on his hands and eager to keep supporting his now business-owner friend, Brown became Troy’s prep cook for the diner’s first year-and-a-half. And in the best way he could think of, his boss named one of the early signature dishes after him – a cheese-filled, bacon-wrapped, deep-fried hot dog affectionately dubbed the Jim B Dog.
A 'Miracle' reunion
It was through Newton that Brown was reconnected with Miracle on Main Street founders Tiger Jeet Singh and Tiger Jeet Singh Jr.
The latter and his brothers had their go-karts and motorbikes fixed by Brown when they were kids living in Hornby, though Tiger Jr. admits that memory didn’t immediately come to mind during a chance encounter decades later.
“He looked at me with this kind of cross-eyed grin and says ‘I can’t believe you don’t remember me. He helped reconnect the dots and from there it was like no time had passed.”
The reunion was fortuitous for both parties. The Tigers were getting ready to kickstart their annual holiday toy drive and needed a Santa, while Brown was only too happy to oblige.
“He was a magnet for the children,” said Tiger Jr. “It takes a special person to don the suit, which speaks volumes about him. Anyone who had the good fortune to know him was blessed.”
That’s a popular sentiment amongst longtime Miltonians, many of whom shared memories on Brown’s obituary page of his welcoming nature when they first moved to the neighbourhood and of meaningful conversations with he and wife Carole on their Mary Street porch.
Challinor recalls Brown being instrumental in establishing the Sunday evening classic car show in the Canadian Tire parking lot in the 1980s, as well as helping the Milton DBIA start up the summer Cruise Night along Main Street.
“He was a guy you could turn to. He was very generous with his time in the community.”
Legros fondly remembers fixing up cars with her father while growing up – including his prized 1957 Chevy – and how dad would often offer his general handiness to neighbours’ renovation projects.
Still, she admits not realizing the depth of his overall impact on the town until Friday’s memorial service at the Mason’s lodge.
“He’d help somebody but you’d never know who he helped, but now they all came out and said he helped me with this, and I said wow. I didn’t know he touched that many people’s lives.”