Romaire to donate ‘Cajun Christmas’ display to hometown

Cajun Santa and his alligators will arrive in Morgan City before Christmas thanks to Lee Romaire.

Romaire, 52, a Morgan City native and 1984 graduate of Central Catholic High School, is founder and CEO of Romaire Studios in Los Angeles.

He will unveil a new Christmas display that he and a team of other artists created for his hometown at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 30, on the Spirit of Morgan City shrimp boat located in the median of Brashear Avenue.

The unveiling will be held in conjunction with Morgan City’s annual Christmas lighting ceremony, which is typically on Thanksgiving night but changed this year to accommodate the unveiling of the display.

Romaire Studios is “one of the foremost providers of live-action creatures, characters and animated props for the entertainment industry,” a news release said. Romaire, an Emmy-winning artist, founded the company in 2000.

In the Morgan City display, Santa will be decked out in white shrimping boots, and his outfit will have brown fur instead white fur to represent the fur industry. Instead of reindeer, Romaire chose to create albino alligators that are more “Christmassy” than regular alligators, he said Monday while in Morgan City.

At first, Romaire was going to use a “traditional Christmas theme” for the display.

But he later decided having a “Cajun Christmas theme” would be much neater and incorporate aspects of the Morgan City community, he said.

He plans to return to the city prior to the lighting ceremony to set up the display, which will include some other Louisiana-themed decorations that Romaire is keeping a secret until the Nov. 30 unveiling.

“We’re thrilled that Lee is making this generous donation to his hometown,” Morgan City Mayor Frank “Boo” Grizzaffi said in a news release.

“Our Christmas display will soon have a Louisiana theme and memorable characters from a leading creative studio that works with the world’s top theme parks,” Grizzaffi said.

Twelve to 15 artists, including moldmakers and computer design specialists, spent the past year developing the display.

Much of the work Romaire Studios does for clients is confidential.

“So it’s really fun when you’re able to actually show something that you can do and have done" and share it with people, Romaire said.

Romaire Studios mostly now does work for theme parks in research and development along with production. The company used to do a lot of work for movies, TV and commercials.

Last year, Romaire thought of the idea to create a Christmas display for his hometown while visiting Morgan City for the funeral of a family friend, who was inspirational and generous to the community.

“It just made me think that I wanted to give something back,” Romaire said.

Morgan City’s Christmas display “always inspired me as a kid because I loved that kind of thing,” he said.

So adding his own touch to the display was “a natural choice for me,” Romaire said.

He grew up with Grizzaffi, so he called the mayor and said he wanted to donate a new Christmas display to Morgan City.

As a child, Romaire started doing taxidermy and was always fascinated with “things that looked real.”

Going to Disney World with its themed-environments at a young age inspired him to later pursue a career creating art in the movie and theme park industries.

Though Romaire has spent the past two decades creating characters and creatures, he spent about a decade of his career working in advertising.

He graduated in 1989 with an advertising degree from LSU and used that degree to do creative writing and directing. But he eventually grew tired of that work.

“As a kid, I was always very creative and made things, so I wanted to do that again,” Romaire said.

Romaire was working in New Orleans when he decided to make a career change and began sculpting Mardi Gras props. He then realized that he wanted to work in the “movie business” and was mentored by makeup artist Dick Smith, who did work on “The Godfather” and “The Exorcist.”