MACON, Ga. — On Christmas Eve, kids will head to bed early, hoping to get a visit from Santa Claus. There is one man in Macon who plans to deliver gifts to kids a little early. It's a story of redemption that shows a little magic can take you a long way.
"This church has actually been a real support for me," Eddie Williams said.
For Williams, the road to First Presbyterian Church was anything but easy.
"I had to do what I had to do to survive -- I stole, I took, I got caught, got out and started the same thing all over again. It was pretty rough. I stayed in abandoned houses, on benches," Williams said.
Williams showed me records showing he got arrested more than a dozen times between the late '70s and early 2000s. Facing an addiction to drugs, Williams decided it was time for a change.
"My life was totally dark, there was no daylight, there was no sound -- to me, I was in Hell," Williams said.
With hard work and a support system, Williams cleaned up his life and is now spreading holiday cheer across Bibb County.
"I just prayed about it and just went on natural instinct, being my version of what Santa Claus would be and do," Williams said.
Williams did not become Santa overnight. Marguerite Farley says It all started during a holiday party 4 or 5 years ago at the Dempsey. Farley used to lead programs at the Dempsey that focused on reading and writing skills and more.
"'I need you. Will you be Santa Claus?' He said, 'Sure,'" Farley said, and the rest is history.
"And he just took to it and he just loved it, and he started spending his money to bring boxes of gifts to children," Farley said.
Williams hopes that his story of redemption shows that your past does not define your future.
"There's going to be a lot of happy kids this Christmas here," Williams said.