Turns out that playing Santa Claus requires much more than donning a red suit and a fake beard.
Last month, a dozen Father Christmas wannabes attended Santa School at Auckland United Football Club ahead of their appearances in shopping malls during the festive season.
“I enjoy working with children and when you see children come to see Santa, the looks on their faces and when they say 'I love you Santa', you get a buzz. You know you’re doing your job,” Dave Doherty said.
At age 73, this is Doherty’s ninth year of re-learning how to engage and dress like a mall Santa, and every year he loves the magic Santa brings to children.
“They’re not coming to see me — they’re coming to see Santa and it's up to me to do the best job that I can.”
For actor Tim Briggs, transforming into Santa is the ultimate role. He’s done a lot of Shakespeare and is a drama teacher at a school.
“I’ve never played Santa, never. My life is complete. I can die now,” he laughed.
A Santa crisis
This year New Zealand is facing a Santa crisis, with Mr Claus himself in short supply due to Covid-19 hitting our shores. Australian Santa Ambassador Tony Hooper from talent agency Scene to Believe flew in to recruit and train Santas to fill the hundreds of positions across the country.
“Santa will never look bored or disengaged and never, never use inappropriate language,” he told the class.
“Open your eyes and smile, and always keep your arms and hands open. And, you don’t eat when you’re Santa — you only eat peppermints for your breath.”
All prospective Santas are vetted, and all receive Santa suits, lifelike beards and jolly bellies. The only request is to bring your infectious positivity and a hearty "ho ho ho!".
The job not only comes with perks like making kids’ dreams come true and being everyone’s favourite person, but it also pays well —between $35-$50 an hour.
So what does it take to be a mall Santa?
“You need to love children; you need to have young children in your background and you need to have fun,” Hooper said.
“Generally, the age we’re looking for is between 60 and 90 years old,” he added.
Hooper, who was a former mall Santa, said he’s had to answer some tricky questions from children, such as: "Santa, my parents are separated. Can you make Mum and Dad live together?" or "Santa, my Nana died a few weeks ago. Can you make her come back?”.
"The second one is difficult, but the question about Mum and Dad living together – I teach Santas to tell them they can’t make that happen but to tell them that no matter where Mum and Dad are they both love you very, very much.”
And it's official: Santa Claus is coming to town. Santa and his helpers are touching down at Westfield malls this Saturday.
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