Santa is supposed to be a mythical type of person, like Mary Poppins, fairies and trolls. Santa is not supposed to get sick, right? Well, after small children sneeze and cough and other things on your mythical persona, illness can occur. The problem is the appointments that you have to keep when you feel like just going back to bed to rest.
My Professional Santa became very ill around Christmas one year and it was scary. The illness was not communicable to the children, thank goodness, but it meant that his resistance to infection was way down. So here is where Ms Claus has to become very involved and help with the scheduling and driving, as Santa was very worn and tired. One gig per day, not the usual 4 to 5 per weekday, up to 8 on weekend days. Eat healthy, drink plenty of water, no chills or over-heating, no dancing - and try not to hold everybody on your lap! But, even with planning and caution, sometimes a bug will get you and that year, it hit my PS hard. We had to cancel a couple of gigs. Except for one family where the woman threatened to sue my PS and yelled and screamed at him on the phone when he explained he was sick - she did not care! I was ready to go over there and talk about poor parenting (bring the illness into the house) and lack of Christmas spirit, but my PS said that he would do the best he could. So we drove over there, to a brand new huge house (these people had real money) and I sat outside while my PS did the gig. He made sure that none of the children sat on his lap, he had the children do most of the singing, and he wished everyone a very Merry Holiday and came out to meet me outside. The father walked my PS out, apologized and doubled My PS's normal fee. Still, it was a very scary Christmas for me and I thank God we lived through it to perform bigger and better the next year!
My Professional Santa became very ill around Christmas one year and it was scary. The illness was not communicable to the children, thank goodness, but it meant that his resistance to infection was way down. So here is where Ms Claus has to become very involved and help with the scheduling and driving, as Santa was very worn and tired. One gig per day, not the usual 4 to 5 per weekday, up to 8 on weekend days. Eat healthy, drink plenty of water, no chills or over-heating, no dancing - and try not to hold everybody on your lap! But, even with planning and caution, sometimes a bug will get you and that year, it hit my PS hard. We had to cancel a couple of gigs. Except for one family where the woman threatened to sue my PS and yelled and screamed at him on the phone when he explained he was sick - she did not care! I was ready to go over there and talk about poor parenting (bring the illness into the house) and lack of Christmas spirit, but my PS said that he would do the best he could. So we drove over there, to a brand new huge house (these people had real money) and I sat outside while my PS did the gig. He made sure that none of the children sat on his lap, he had the children do most of the singing, and he wished everyone a very Merry Holiday and came out to meet me outside. The father walked my PS out, apologized and doubled My PS's normal fee. Still, it was a very scary Christmas for me and I thank God we lived through it to perform bigger and better the next year!
