Spreading Holiday Cheer
Couple works to brighten the holidays
Submitted photo Children aren’t the only visitors who pose for photos with Richard Fretwell (Santa) and Teresa Corcoran-Fretwell (Mrs. Claus). A dog paid a visit to the couple during a previous event.
The Inter-Mountain file photo Two young children visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus during a community event hosted by The Inter-Mountain in November 2024. The couple met with children, took photos, and handed out candy during the event.
Submitted photoR ichard Fretwell and Teresa Corcoran-Fretwell take dressing up like Santa and Mrs. Claus so seriously that they were married in their costumes on Christmas Day three years ago.
Submitted photo Children aren’t the only visitors who pose for photos with Richard Fretwell (Santa) and Teresa Corcoran-Fretwell (Mrs. Claus). A dog paid a visit to the couple during a previous event.
The Inter-Mountain file photo Two young children visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus during a community event hosted by The Inter-Mountain in November 2024. The couple met with children, took photos, and handed out candy during the event.
Submitted photoR ichard Fretwell and Teresa Corcoran-Fretwell take dressing up like Santa and Mrs. Claus so seriously that they were married in their costumes on Christmas Day three years ago.
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ELKINS -- One would be hard-pressed to find a couple who enjoys Christmas and takes celebrating the holiday to the next level as much as Richard Fretwell and Teresa Corcoran-Fretwell.
For the past six years the duo have been dressing up as Santa and Mrs. Claus to visit homes and Christmas parties all over Elkins. Even during the height of the COVID pandemic, the two strapped shields across their faces and went to the homes of children to spread holiday joy.
"We started dressing up as Santa and Mrs. Claus a couple years before COVID hit," Corcoran-Fretwell said. "We started doing it because the American Legion was having their Christmas party and the guy who usually dressed up like Santa wasn't going to do it anymore. We were members so they asked us to do it and we've been doing it ever since."
Corcoran-Fretwell said that for the first couple of years she dressed as an elf and served as Santa's sidekick.
"I was just an elf in the beginning, but after a couple years we started talking and we thought I should be Mrs. Claus," Corcoran-Fretwell said. "After that it kind of took off, and we started visiting children at their homes and doing more things than the American Legion party."
The couple's joy of spreading holiday cheer led to them deciding to get married on Christmas Day three years ago. Not only did they tie the knot on the biggest holiday of the year, but they did so dressed as Santa and Mrs. Claus.
"We got married on Christmas Day by Richard's aunt who is a preacher," Corcoran-Fretwell said. "We were married at his aunt's house and we dressed up like Santa and Mrs. Claus for the wedding. We also had elves and the Grinch at the wedding."
Corcoran-Fretwell said the duo will start visiting homes during the months of December, and are already penciled in for the American Legion Christmas Party and a visit to the Elkins Mountain School.
"We go to as many individual houses as we can if parents ask us to come and see their children," Fretwell said. "We have one little girl that we have visited every year since we started, and for the first two or three years when we would knock on the door, you could hear her screaming all the way down the road because she was so excited."
Corcoran-Fretwell said that during the first two years of visiting houses, Santa Claus became a little upset with her.
"When we do the individual houses, I have to get every child a toy," Corcoran-Fretwell said. "I got in trouble with Santa (Richard) the first two years because I would ask the parents what their kids like, and no matter how much it was, I would get it. The first year Santa didn't say anything; the second year he told me that I was going to break us and that I couldn't keep doing it. So now we just buy some little things they can play with and take them a candy cane. And I make cookies for a lot of them too."
The couple said they have no plans of slowing down in the near future.
"We're gonna keep doing this at Christmas as long as we can. We're not ready to stop yet," Fretwell said. "I'm going to retire this year from work, so hopefully it will be a little bit easier to do all of the stuff we do at Christmas."