Job: Santa
Salary: Santa pay depends on photo sales, so it varies. When you start out, you might not be making very much. But you start making a name for yourself and then you can do very well. It can be anywhere from $40 to $12,000 a season.
Education/ background: I'm Santa 42 days of the year. I don't usually share this -- I usually keep it to the [Santa] story while I'm here -- but the rest of the year you could say I make toys. But toys for big people. I make aircraft parts for Hitchcock Industries & Consolidated Precision Products. I've also been to many Santa Claus universities and schools. I teach people, too: how to get jobs, and care for your beard and such. And I started the Minnesota Santas club 15 years ago; we now have 125 Santas.
How did you begin working as a Santa? I started out as a Santa for my own family over 40 years ago, with a $25 suit from Frank's Nursery & Crafts. The gal who bought me that suit now brings her grandkids in, so that dates me a bit.
But what really got me into it was I had a brother who was 3 1/2 years old and had leukemia. I spent a lot of time in the hospital at the University of Minnesota. I'd go out to see the kids and play with them and they'd love it. I was probably about 17. It was really a hard thing to see him go through chemo[therapy] ... so I helped build a trike for him and we had it extended because he had a shorter leg. That's where it started.
Then I grew my beard and my hair. And I got a job in St. Louis Park at a mall, and then another job flying out to a mall in Kalamazoo [Mich.] The line would be 3 or 3 1/2 hours long every day. People watching would holler down, "We believe!"
That's what it's all about: winning kids over, no matter what age. Then 13 years ago a friend told me they were interviewing here [at the Mall of America]. I showed them my scrapbook and some pictures of the things I could do, and it's been nothing but growing since then.
Now I go only by appointment. I get to have more fun with the kids because I sit on the floor, and we have a conversation. It's all recorded on DVD. The most amazing part is to see the twinkle in these kids' eyes.
