Memories of sitting on Santa’s lap at the mall are common among adults — even if those memories are more about the tearful screaming.
But those memories are just as treasured by Santa Claus himself, according to several folks who have portrayed him for families over the years.
“I loved it. I absolutely loved it,” said Charles Brack, a Georgia native who played Santa for more than 20 years in Ohio and Pennsylvania. “I had such a good time. When you put on the suit, you think, ‘I have all this time,’ and it seems like forever. But it zips by so quick. I would go back tomorrow if I could, but I’m just not able.”
Brack, the 81-year-old mayor of rural Allentown, Ga., isn’t alone in thinking the holidays just aren’t quite long enough. Back in the day, Brack’s Santa season started Nov. 1 and ran through Dec. 24.
For others, it’s even shorter, only starting in December.
“I wish Christmas could be more than one month a year,” said Kent Coish, who dons the suit for Santa Paws at Red’s Ice House in Charleston. “Christmas brings a lot of joy to a lot of people’s lives. That’s why I love playing Santa Claus — I like to make people laugh and smile every day.”
At the James Island Holiday Festival of Lights, several people portray Santa, allowing the attraction to have the big guy on stage every night starting Nov. 10.
“The way they come running up to you and hug you,” said one of the Santas who identified himself only as Santa Dave, “they’re just in awe. They look up at you, and it’s like the whole world is in front of them.”
Santa Dave has been working at the Festival of Lights since 2018, but has played the big guy in other places for more than 20 years, he said.
Memorable moments
Those who have spent any time in the big red suit have no shortage of stories to tell, from funny to heartwarming to heartbreaking.
“This little boy came in to see me, and his mom and his dad and both sets of grandparents were there,” said Brack, a cousin of the City Paper’s publisher. “He was obviously the only grandchild. He said, ‘Santa, I’m a big boy. I sleep by myself all night. Mommy and Daddy don’t like me to sleep with them anymore, except when Daddy is out of town.’ I said, ‘That’s really good. Your mom needs the company when your dad is gone.’ He said, ‘Yeah, except for whenever Uncle Bill comes over, then I have to go back to my room.’ The woman’s face was beet red. The man’s face was beet red. I thought the best thing to do was to get them out of there, so I said, ‘Well, tell me what you want for Christmas!’ ”
Brack said he likes to tell people now that he’s helped several couples get engaged — and at least one get divorced. Santa Dave also had a fun memory.
“We had a young couple and their parents come up just the other night for a photo,” Santa Dave said. “They said, ‘This is our first Christmas picture.’ The parents were confused, ‘What do you mean?’ And they said, ‘For our new little one.’ That was their pregnancy announcement. They were all excited of course. That was probably the youngest kid ever brought to see me as Santa.”
Not every story is happy, but the sad stories are just as important, Brack said.
“I’ve seen kids beat cancer. I’ve seen kids lose to cancer,” he said. “A little boy, Chucky … they would always bring him to see me and dress him like Woody from Toy Story. They called me one year, told me Woody was in the children’s hospital with bone cancer. One night, after I got off the throne, they picked me up, and I got the suit on, and we went to the hospital to see him. He died before I finished that year — shortly after that visit.”
Robots, toy’ gun, escalator
And, of course, everybody always asks, “What’s the craziest thing a kid has asked for for Christmas?”
“I had two 5-year-old twins, and the first twin wanted, you know, robots,” said Coish at Red’s Ice House. “And I looked at the other twin when he came up, and I said, ‘Well what do you want?’ He looks at me square in the eyes and goes, ‘A gun.’ His mother was right there, and she said, ‘A toy gun.’ But it didn’t sound like that!”
Santa Dave also said kids ask for everything from peace on Earth to new Barbie dolls, but there was one funny request that stuck with him.
“I had one kid ask me for an escalator because he hated taking the stairs every day,” he said. “I looked at his folks, and they said, ‘We live on a farm. What do we need an escalator for?’ It’s always kind of crazy. It’s just whatever they come up with as they’re walking up there.”
Pictures of Santa with animals also are popular, Brack said, but not every bring-your-pet night goes smoothly.
“I’ve had everything from a frog to snakes and ferrets and bunnies,” he said. “Mostly dogs, of course. One girl, who actually worked with us, brought in a bunny and a ferret. And if you don’t know, to a ferret, a bunny rabbit is lunch. The ferret immediately bit the rabbit, and I had to pry those teeth apart to get them off.”
A tough gig’
Some may think Santa looks warm and cozy in the big red suit, especially in the middle of December, but they can get a little too warm, some said. Throw in the more than 20,000 visitors that a Santa can get in a season, and you’re in for some rough shifts.
“I wear an ice vest under the suit because it gets so hot,” the anonymous Santa Dave said. “It actually circulates water all through it to keep the whole thing cool. The problem is that it’s only good for a few hours.”
And one sitting as Santa can last well beyond that.
“It’s a tough gig,” Brack said. “I would show up for a 12-hour day every day except Thanksgiving. In my 20 years, I missed about five days for sickness, and every time I would come back, families would come and retake the pictures because the kids would say, ‘That wasn’t the real Santa yesterday.’ ”
But despite the long hours and rough schedule, even working through a cold, in Santa Dave’s case, the kids keep them coming back.
“You’d think I’d learn after 20 years,” Santa Dave said, laughing. “But it’s the kids. It really is.”
Getting the picture
Every Santa has strategies for getting kids to sit just long enough for someone to snap a photo.
“A couple things you always do — I always wear white gloves,” Santa Dave said. “Those are cartoon character hands. You can’t have an actual hand showing, because that would scare the kids. But the white gloves, they realize that and give you a high-five. It breaks the ice.”
Santa Gary, another Festival of Lights Santa, has a rubber duck he uses to distract the kids for a second.
“It’s a learning experience,” Brack said. “You just meet the kids where they are. I learned an awful lot about people being Santa.”
In some cases, though, he said, there’s no need for any strategies.
“They cry, they scream, and the screaming pictures are gorgeous,” he said. “They’re beautiful because it’s so unique, it’s different.”
Santa Dave agrees.
“Some of them — nothing works. Some are just screamers,” he said, laughing. “They’re all excited on the way up, but then all of a sudden, they’re there. And we don’t help, you know. You tell your kids all year long, ‘Stranger danger! Get away from the dirty old man.’ Then, one day a year, you get up and say, ‘Here, sit on his lap!’ ”
Lily Levin contributed to this story.
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