“This isn't about a costume — it's about a child being seen.”
— NBC 5 DFW
NBC 5 DFW devoted its local holiday spotlight to Charles Graves, capturing his appearances at North Texas events and interviewing Deaf families who had driven hours from across the region to meet him. The segment leaned into the human-interest dimension: parents recounting how their child, often for the first time, had a Santa visit that didn’t require translation.
Reporters traced Graves’s career arc as well — from his decades at the Texas School for the Deaf to his certification as a professional Santa Claus, including his historic standing as the first Deaf graduate of the International University of Santa Claus in 2022. The station also captured one of the foundation’s recurring observations: hearing parents and siblings are often as moved as the Deaf child being signed with.
The NBC 5 DFW piece is part of a chain of Texas local-news coverage from 2022–2023 that gave Graves’s work statewide visibility before the national documentary tour began.
