- [Interviewer] How did you get involved
in this whole Santa business?
- Well I thought when my first granddaughter was born,
how could I make my grandchildren remember me.
- I was on a three-week vacation, grew my beard out.
When I came back, some of the boys at the job said,
"Geez, you look like Santa Claus."
Oh, I think I could do Santa Claus.
- Me and my significant other were talking about
what did I want to do with my life from here on.
And I just arbitrarily said, "I wanna be Santa Claus."
I have over 150 statues of Santa Claus
in my bedroom on shelves.
- I just basically was winging it for the first year or two,
but then I was told about the class,
and I said well it makes sense to go.
(gentle, festive music)
- 25 years ago, my wife and I were watching TV,
and they had a TV program
called Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.
- [Announcer] It's another dazzling
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.
- And Santa was going around modeling,
and other things in New York,
and Robin Leach made the comment,
"And this Santa makes $1000 a day."
And I got this little pain in my ribs,
and it was my wife, she was giving me the elbow,
and she says, "You know, when you retire,
"I'll let you do that."
(festive music)
I've done parades, I've met a lot
of celebrities in my career, so that puts me
on a different plateau than just being a jolly old man.
All through my life, all the things that I've done,
I think was God's way of training me for this position
of not only being Santa to families and children,
but also sharing my knowledge, and my experience,
and the training to other Santas.
And out of this, we actually started going on little cruises
and little trips, and that's why we're going to Alaska.
(magical music)
(people faintly speaking over each other)
Number one item, starting with the basics,
know who you work for.
Who do you work for?
- Kids. - Children.
- The children, yes, uh huh, they are your number one boss.
They've watched all the movies, they've read the books,
they have great memories on these things.
The fantasy is in their mind of everything,
and if you can continue that fantasy,
you can continue that magic, that's what they want.
And that means we gotta be in character all the time,
no matter where we go, or what we do.
And you have to remember that everything is seen,
the way you walk, how you carry yourself, the way you talk.
Santa has to be in your heart all the time, 24-7-365.
♪ I am Santa ♪
♪ I am good ♪
- I am here to train each of you
to become a real Santa Claus.
Give me a ho ho ho!
- [Santas In Unison] Ho ho ho!
- [Instructor] Yeah, we gotta train 'em for snowstorms.
We gotta train them for water hazards.
We gotta train them for chimneys.
(thudding)
- Give me a ho! - Ho!
- Give me a ho ho! - Ho ho!
- Give me a ho, ho, ho! - Ho ho ho!
- What does it mean? - Merry Christmas!
- End of day one kids. (applause and cheering)
- In engineering, you don't build what you wanna build,
you build what the customer pays you to build.
And I made Santa the exact same way.
I'll play the part as the customer wants me to play it.
Tim's a very experienced Santa.
He's been in Hollywood, and I think he really taught me
how to portray Santa, almost as an actor,
but as the customer wants it.
♪ Jingle bells ♪
♪ Jingle all the way ♪
♪ Oh what fun it is to ride ♪
♪ In a one horse open sleigh ♪
- Ho ho ho, hi kids, how are you?
That's it.
Now there are people
who are wondering how much does a Santa make.
It could be anywhere from $5000 in a small community,
and maybe only working a couple weeks,
to working six or eight weeks
and making maybe as much as $20,000 or $25,000.
- I mean I have had incidences where people would go,
behave there's Santa, and it's July.
(laughing)
- A lot of Santas visit at a mall setting,
and they spend maybe a minute or two with the kids.
I set up appointments for every six minutes.
We have six minutes of time with the family, and the child,
and Santa, and the photographer, and Mrs. Claus usually.
And I named it Santa's North Pole Experience because to me,
the experience is what we're really selling.
It's not Santa or the North Pole,
but it's the whole ball of wax.
- I take my Santa-ness very seriously.
This is the job the Good Lord wants me to do,
to be a Santa Claus.
We're kind of like a hope amplifier,
we amp up the power of belief for the children.
- Most of the other Santas, average age is around 72,
and I'm in my young 50s,
so it's like I'm the young guy here at 54.
And because I have a very extensive background
as a magician, as a clown, as an entertainer,
and as a school teacher working with kids,
when I put my resume out,
I was offered jobs all over the country.
- [Interviewer] It sounds like
you're pretty successful with this.
- Well, not as successful as I'd like to be.
Let's be honest, I mean I'd like to do better.
I'd like to get to the point where in my area
I'm doing commercials and television shows
and other things like that.
- I'm looking forward to this.
It's such a beautiful morning, and it's a beautiful country,
and beautiful companions on this trip.
- This trip has been wonderful.
I've actually visited five Christmas stores,
like every place I go, there's a Christmas store,
and it's been great.
- [Man] There's a whale watching tour in Juneau,
it's guaranteed, you can't go wrong.
(laughing)
- Dude Santa, he's spreading the legs.
- [Man] And he's real flexible, just like you.
- [Santa] Yeah, yeah we are.
(people faintly speaking over each other)
- Do I get to show you my baby picture?
I love showing my baby picture.
- [Man] Oh yeah, let me see it.
Birth certificate. - Oh looky there.
- [Santa] On the back is the better picture.
- [Man] Oh wow, look at that, even a beard right there.
- Three days old. - Three days old, whew.
- Yeah. - That's crazy.
♪ All the way ♪
♪ Oh what fun it is to ride ♪
♪ In a one horse open sleigh ♪
♪ Hey ♪
♪ Dashing through the snow ♪
♪ In a one horse open sleigh ♪
♪ O'er the hills we go ♪
♪ Laughing all the way ♪
♪ Ho ho ho ho ♪
♪ Bells on bobtails ring ♪
- You should have three goals from any event you go to.
Number one, that you created the moment for the client.
That you felt good about what you did at that event.
And if you're fortunate, your third goal is that
you've set the stage that they will call you
and have you book again next year,
or you've set the stage for other people at that party
to call you and book you for another event.
I also recommend the independent Santa
needs to create an elevator speech,
it's that you wanna tell 'em what you do
so that maybe they want to hire you.
You can give them that little pitch.
Most of us only work four weekends a year,
so we gotta maximize the time
in those four weekends to make our monies.
How do you make Santa's phone ring?
It is marketing, marketing, marketing.
- You always have to remember you can't do this for free,
but then if you do it with a good heart,
everything else will come together.
- Some Santas look at it like this is my job,
I have to make the money, I have to do what my boss wants.
If you watch the great Santas like I do,
they're always having fun.
The money is almost secondary to 'em.
But what's brilliant about that is the best Santas
that are having a good time, they make the most money.
- [Santas In Unison] Merry Christmas!
(cheering)
♪ When a man loves a woman ♪
(music drowns out speaking)
♪ When a man ♪
(jazzy festive music)
- Give me a ho! - Ho!
- Give me a ho ho! - Ho ho!
- Give me a ho ho ho! - Ho ho ho!
- What does it mean? - Merry Christmas!
- You came here today
because you wanted to make a difference,
you were looking to be the best,
you wanted to be a champion.
Today's training (triumphant music)
is the real and the blunt, okay.
If you really wanna be the best,
it takes concentration and a commitment.
40 years ago there was no association,
there was no networking, nobody even knew there might
be a Santa living around the block
or on the other side of town.
But about 20 years ago, the internet started evolving
to where Santas could communicate with each other.
They networked, and all of a sudden,
we started building organizations.
- It's just like almost a family,
and some of my better friends are Santas
in other parts of the country.
- The biggest reason I come back every year
is to see the Santas.
We're always laughing, we're always joking,
then it makes us some of the best Santas out there.
Every year I pick up something new,
be it from Tim or another Santa, or a different idea.
- I've been doing this 17 years, teaching all the Santas,
and every school we get another gem,
usually a half dozen or so, which are really great.
Congratulations everybody. (applause)
I'm excited about graduation, I always am very excited.
I've had over 4000 Santas and Mrs. Claus receive diplomas
from my school and here we're gonna
have another 75 at this school,
and I know they're getting excited about it too.
♪ Santa Claus is comin' to town ♪
♪ Santa Claus is comin' ♪
♪ Santa Claus is comin' to town ♪
(cheering and applause)
- [Singer] Merry Christmas everybody!