Local Santa Inspires Hollywood Film

You could say West Branch native Spencer Folmar, has been a busy elf over the past few weeks. The Los Angeles-based filmmaker has been filming exterior shots for an upcoming Christmas movie, “Saint Nick of Bethlehem,” at locations in Centre, Blair and Clearfield counties as well as in the Lehigh Valley.

The film is based on a Clearfield County man, Allen Smith, who began playing Santa Claus in the area in response to his own tremendous personal loss, having first lost a beloved uncle in 2014 and then unexpectedly losing his 23-year-old son, Garrett, to a bee sting reaction in 2019.

“Allen found kind of new purpose in playing Santa Claus and being a father figure to kids who don’t have a father figure, or to underprivileged children,” Folmar said.

“It’s sort of a catharsis for him in his grieving process to play Santa Claus and bring joy to others, even though he’s still experiencing grief himself.”

Folmar said he has wanted to make this film ever since meeting Smith in person at a wedding a few years ago. He said he found the perfect person to portray Santa in the movie: Daniel Roebuck, most recently seen as Grandpa Munster in Netflix’s “The Munsters.”

Roebuck and Folmar are co-directing the film, and Roebuck also helped Folmar rewrite the script, which Folmar says remains pretty true to Smith’s story — including a love story element centered around Smith’s reconnection with his former high school sweetheart, Gina, who is now his wife.

One major embellishment is that the movie is mainly set in Roebuck’s hometown of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which is often referred to as “Christmas City.”

However, Folmar said, “Central Pennsylvania will have some solid screen time.”

The cast recently shot several scenes in the area, including at the Rowland Theatre and other locations in downtown Philipsburg, as well as at the iconic 40-foot Santa Claus at Cold Stream Park. The cast and crew also spent an entire night shooting a pivotal scene at Lakemont Park’s “Lights on the Lake” in Altoona.

With the exterior filming now complete, Folmar will be bringing the cast and crew back together in March to shoot the rest of the film.

He said he hopes the movie will be ready to be released by Christmas of 2024.

“We really hope it will become a new holiday classic Christmas movie,” he said.

“It’s heartfelt, it’s funny, and it’s family friendly.”

This will be Folmar’s sixth feature film, including several others that have been set in central Pennsylvania, like “Generational Sins” (2017) and “Shooting Heroin” (2020).

Before heading back home to Los Angeles, he is staying in central Pennsylvania for a few more weeks in order to film a documentary about Smith under the working title “Sad Santa and the Healing Power of Giving.”

He is hoping to release the documentary in 2025.