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GREENSBORO — Jac Grimes has joined an elite club of elves.

The lifelong Guilford County resident, who first donned the Santa suit in 2006, has been inducted into the International Santa Claus Hall of Fame.

One of six inducted this year, Grimes joins 63 others since the hall started honoring the jolly old elf in 2010. The list includes three other North Carolina Santas, along with notable Santas such as Ed Asner, who has portrayed Santa in a variety of movies including “Elf”; Mickey Rooney, who voiced Santa in several animated shows including “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”; and Edmund Gwenn of “Miracle on 34th Street” fame.

“The hall of fame is like the top of the top,” Grimes, 64, said Saturday by phone from his Greensboro home. “I’m still kind of shocked that they actually would select me, because if you go look at their inductees, there are guys that did it in department stores for 30 years. And I’m just incredibly honored to be a part of it.”

Grimes sort of stumbled into the role. He already had the white beard and is a big guy, he said. So when he put on a red Santa hat with a red shirt while subbing as a school bus driver in 2005, the kids naturally started to wonder if the top elf himself had stopped in to check on them.