Five Professional Santa Clauses Reveal Their Secrets, From $ 800 An Hour Wages To The Maintenance Of Their Beards

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Ed Taylor accidentally found the opportunity to become a professional Santa Claus. In 2002, a friend fell ill before a job where he had to impersonate the Christmas icon for an event in Oregon. Taylor did him the favor of putting on the red suit and black boots reluctantly instead.

"I did it for three hours and I was delighted," Taylor confessed.

This is how his professional Santa Claus story began. Most of the stories from the beginning of these Santa Clauses are similar to that of Taylor: a last minute replacement for an event or a friend who told them they looked like Santa Claus. Tasks and careers include volunteer work at local hospitals, traditional events in shopping malls, and television and commercials.

The most entrepreneurial Santa Clauses attend a variety of schools, conservatories, conferences, or take online courses to perfect their craft. They invest their own money in different costumes, travel across the country to fulfill prominent contracts, and, in some cases, commit to playing the role every month of the year.

Taylor spent her first seven years as a Santa Claus volunteer in Oregon before moving to Los Angeles, where her career flourished. "I began to realize that I should increase my skills and think about what I could do to improve," he said. He took improv and acting classes - and even attended a school for Santa Clauses before starting to get about 100 jobs a year, from commercials to shows on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show.

Taylor now runs his own school, called the Santa Clauses Conservatory, where around 1,800 of them can learn everything about character portrayal and even how to run their own businesses.

"They really feel that they are working for a cause, that Santa Claus is this ambassador of love, hope, caring and optimism," Taylor said of the professional Santa Clauses. "I think a lot of them actually want to embody that and perpetuate the feeling of what Santa Claus stands for, or perhaps what it stood for them in their childhood."

Taylor is one of five Santa Clauses (and a Mrs. Claus) interviewed by Money magazine about how to get into business, what they do when it's not Christmas, and why they keep doing it. These are the main secrets and tips that they shared.

Being Santa Claus is a very lucrative job

Depending on the time of year, Santa Clauses can earn large sums of money. Those more prominent like Taylor charge ensado accordingly,”a PayScale representative explained in an email to Money Phyllis McNeice magazine.

To calculate salaries for different personifications, Santa Clauses often present their rates on their own websites or on platforms like GigSalad.com, where they can post photos, rates, and reviews.

But the Santa Clauses do not receive money for all their personifications. Each of those interviewed by Money magazine described voluntary and unpaid work - often in children's hospitals and foundations - as the most rewarding.

Gajes of the trade: royal beards, diplomas and refreshing vests

Joe Nametko is the mayor of a town in Netcong, New Jersey, and a relatively new Santa Claus. The 65-year-old man barely started doing jobs in December 2016, but he already knows the tricks of the trade.

Always have an additional suit on hand. He wears several pairs of gloves even if it's just for one job. Put on a refreshing vest to avoid overheating. "I have everything perfectly calculated," says the mayor of his routine.

Other Santa Clauses interviewed by Money magazine shared similar advice. Maintaining an authentic, leafy beard is vital to many. Indeed, Nametko is part of the International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas, an organization serving Santa Claus with royal beards, offering liability insurance coverage, scholarships and background checks that will satisfy to any client”.

Bruce Arnold, who has represented Santa Claus along with his wife Margaret Arnold, as Mrs. Claus, in Colorado for fourteen years, is also a member of this organization. Arnold, 69, keeps his beard year-round - and frequently finds ways to enhance his suit collection. Margaret, known as Margee, handcrafts many of Arnold's outfits as well as her own outfits. On a trip to Alaska, several years ago, she bought fur that later became part of her coat.

Custom made coats and different looks are an integral part of the character. Often for advertisements and other jobs, Santa Clauses must wear their own costumes, says Taylor, who regularly performs 100 personifications a year.

Many of these tips and tricks of the trade come from a variety of schools for Santa Clauses, with students ranging from aspiring professionals to professionals. At Taylor's Santa Clauses Conservatory, members can get both free information and higher-order subscription-based memberships with access to additional advice, such as business strategies and promotional techniques.

Larry Jefferson, or "Santa Larry," has attended four different Santa Clauses schools since starting his career in 1999. He completed his most recent program earlier this year in Midland, Michigan, and was the first African American to impersonate Santa Claus at the famous Mall of America shopping center last year.

It is not just a job - it is a vocation

Many of the Santa Clauses interviewed by Money magazine have painstakingly devised tactics to keep the Christmas spirit alive, even being recognized as Santa Claus in public outside of their performances and during the warmer months.

Tom Zimecki, who represents Santa Claus alongside the Philadelphia Phillies Phanatic baseball team over the summer, has become so identified with the role that his younger grandchildren believe he really is Santa Claus. Drive a car with reindeer antlers and a red nose up front.

"I never say it is a performance because I think I am Santa Claus," said Zimecki. “I keep my appearance all year round, so you have to understand that that carries a responsibility. I don't go outside if I'm in a bad mood. And if I go out, I don't drink alcohol or smoke.”

This month, one of Zimecki's grandchildren learned that he was not Santa Claus - but he vowed not to tell his younger brother.

The Arnolds, who represent Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus in Colorado, carry stickers to reward children who recognize Santa Claus in public, asking them to keep their special gathering secret. Margee says her favorite encounter with little fans was when two boys cautiously approached Arnold at a restaurant.

"It is absolutely incredible," she says. "Whether it's July, May or December, when the kids see her face, hair and beard they take a second look at her."

And it's not just being recognized. Working as Santa Claus has influenced the behavior of many of these professionals - learning lessons from the joviality and energetic perspective of the Christmas star.

"I try to make the personification of Santa Claus bring out the best in me every minute of my life as much as possible," says Taylor. “I really think about what Santa Claus would do: a generous, kind, courteous and jovial man. I have this image of what Santa Claus would be like and I try to represent it to the best of my ability.”

Having a career in the public service area helps

The professional Santa Clauses work part time, full time or are pensioners who earn a few pesos from time to time. But one thing that many have in common is a history of working in the area of public service, which translates well to work that focuses on children's aspirations and service to the community.

Jefferson, a war veteran, represents Santa Claus part-time while working at the Texas Urban Inter-Tribal Center, a Dallas nonprofit organization that serves Native Americans living in the area. "When I was hired for a new job, I told them from the beginning that I was a professional Santa Claus, so I would need two weeks off in December." That's when he heads to Minnesota to work at the Mall of America - a job that went viral last year.

Arnold, from Aurora, Colorado, recounted how he once drove a handicapped bus around town before becoming full-time Santa Claus. The latter, who also learned American sign language to communicate with deaf children as part of his job, said driving that vehicle was "proof that he could work with children and adults immediately" like Santa Claus.

Nametko personifies Santa Claus at Christmas time in tandem with his job as mayor - frequently making quick and free appearances as Santa Claus at local businesses to convey joy, as he puts it. And Taylor, the renowned Santa Claus from Los Angeles, was a professional public speaker before changing jobs (and that shows in his clear and jovial tone of voice).

"I decided I wanted to change jobs, and I spent weeks and weeks and months thinking about what I wanted to do," says Taylor. "The idea that came to my mind endlessly was: Santa Claus."

Translated by Carmen Orozco

This article originally appeared on Time.com