Every summer in Copenhagen all its Christmases come at once.
This is where Father Christmases come for their summer holidays.
For the past 50 years, the Bakken Amusement Park on the outskirts of the capital has played
host to the World Santa Claus Congress. It's not for Santas who just dress up in department
stores two weeks before Christmas. These men have been authorised as official Father Christmases
by their world governing body.
I have a sign for you. Am I an "Austral-alien"? It means Australia,
it's just in Danish.Oh! Dave Downey has flown halfway
round the world in the last gruelling step for Santa authorisation. You gotta go in front
of the authorising committee, you've got to have a resounding ho ho ho which
I'm working on, I need to put on a bit more weight.
You're not allowed to smoke or drink in front of children and you've gotta make people happy.
So just about there, yeah.
It might look silly, but the delegates take
it very seriously. Henrik Jacobsen is leader of the Danish Santa Guild and the summit's
chief organiser. Ho ho ho. Of course it's a show.
There's also a serious side to it, because it is serious that children believe in Santa Claus.
The Santas come in different costumes, shapes
and sizes. But their tasks are the same -- visiting sick children, distributing presents
and answering those millions of letters children address to the North Pole.
What's the main present that children ask for?
Oh it depends, from small girls it's Barbie, the dolls Barbie is coming back now. Small
boys they ask for a Volvo s-60.
Bakken Amusement Park was the natural choice for the annual congress. It's been entertaining
children since the 17th century.
Since the first congress in 1957 it's grown into international juggernaut with more than
a hundred delegates. Membership swelled after the end of Communism, when Santa's reindeer
could finally cross the Iron Curtain.
We are from Estonia, fifty years we live under Russian occupation and nobody don't know who
is Santa Claus. They didn't know but they can't say it. This is the
Estonian Santa national costume is it? No it's the summer costume. Oh it's the summer costume.
Very sexy!
Playing Santa may just be a hobby, but for many of the delegates it's the highlight of
their lives. Henrik Jacobsen has been ho-ho-ho-ing for
30 of his 50 years.
Because I love it. I can't imagine my life
without being Santa. And I like the experience of seeing happy children and their shining
eyes. That's fantastic. I become like a child again.
It means I will never grow old.
Being Santa is certainly a contrast to Henrik's day job.
He's a guard in an immigrant detention centre.
Almost every month he deals with violent attacks or attempted suicides.
One thing makes the
other one liveable. There's no doubt that being a guard and I've
been that for 26 years is a very, very stressful job.
You experience very many sad stories and then when I leave the detention centre... and do
this then I forget the other.
Well it's Day Two of the congress when the Santa Clauses have come to town. And Copenhagen
has turned on some genuine Christmas weather. While Santas get the attention, each has an
unsung team of family members behind him, from hard-working Mrs Clauses to part-time
elves.
So you and your friends are Santa's little helpers are you?Yes, ha ha ha. What do you
do with the whole Santa congress? Having fun.
The tour ends with a ceremonial dip in the canal. It's a hard training ground, but the elves
of today may well be the Santas of tomorrow.
Then, laden with presents, the juggernaut heads off laden with presents to one of Copenhagen's
children's hospitals. And Christmas is over for another half a year.