Princeton Complete

We had a very successful Princeton Tree lighting, at least as far as the public is concerned. As my PS says, "If it ever goes according to the script, it will be a miracle!" So the miracle did not happen this year - try again next year!

This year was different, for me anyway. Usually I wait in the hotel room provided, or try to see the event from the crowd (note the word 'try' - I have not ever been in a good spot to see anything yet). This year my PS convinced me to come down with him and stand in the "VIP" section near the 'stage' entrance. (The 'stage' is actually the patio for the Nassau Inn, which overlooks the quad on Palmer Square.) So did I 'see' anything? Oh, I saw everything - from the back. Still, I got to hear everything and that is more important.

What went "wrong?" According to the script, a family sits next to a fireplace, waiting for Santa, while reading "The Night before Christmas." That was fine, as the 'Mother' and 'Father' actors had that part. But when the little girl was supposed to say her lines, a look came across her face and I really understood what they mean by "a deer in the headlights" look. She looked at the 'father,' opened her mouth and - nothing. She just kept looking at him with her mouth open, appearing to search for help or a way to run off the stage. 'Father' basically said her lines for her, in the form of questions (Do you wonder if Santa is real? Do you wonder if he will arrive soon?)

The audience of a couple of thousand people never knew what was going on, so the recovery was okay. Then my PS arrives and does not know this little girl is oozing flop-sweat, so he says his line, expecting a response (there was none), so now he is filling in her lines. Again, the audience never knows.

Now comes my Santa's moment - lighting the tree. The plan is to get the audience involved, yelling Merry Christmas louder and louder until the third time they yell, the tree lights up - or at least, that is how it works every other year. This year, my PS gets everyone to yell Merry Christmas and tree lights on the first try! Surprise! The guy with the PC controlling everything lost his timing, I guess, so the band and my PS start a rousing chorus of "Oh, Christmas Tree" with the audience. Again, unless the people come every year - and many do - they never knew the timing was wrong. Now the Princeton High School Chorus comes bounding out the door and starts to assemble on stage. Again, not in the script, as they had already entertained the crowd before the vignette. Or, if it was in the script, nobody told my PS! But he recovered, although I heard him say to the choral director "Is there enough room up here?" So the chorus sang two more songs, Santa sang with them and the audience sang along. Again, Surprise!

At this point, I am not sure what is happening. I am standing near the wind ensemble and they were caught off guard by this sudden entrance of the chorus but caught up and played the songs now being sung. The coordinator of this whole thing appears after the two surprise songs, grabs a microphone and announces from behind the chorus that the festivities are over. Surprise again!

The chorus leaves the stage, the musicians pack up and I look to see my PS being overrun by the crowd. They are waving and tugging and hugging and I know he loves it. The coordinator asks me if he will be okay and I told her he will be fine, but I am worried that he could get sick, catch some illness or whatever. So she lunges into the crowd to save my PS after about 20 minutes.

After the ceremonies, there is a little reception inside for the Palmer Square Chamber of Commerce, who sponsor this little soiree. So I go up to the room to wait, as my PS has to "press the flesh."

When he comes back to the room, he is tired, but exhilarated. So I suggest that we walk to one of the restaurants and get dinner - after he removes the Santa suit, of course. As we walk, I see a few people look at my PS as if they know him. Without the suit, he looks like a normal guy with white hair and beard, or as normal as that can be. We had a nice dinner, then come back to the hotel where a young woman is getting her two little children together to go up to the room. Something about the way she looked at my PS, again the recognition of...somebody, but this time the look turned into realization. She knew who he was, she knew he was the guy who just lit the tree, but she did not want to alert her two small children. So she looked at me and without saying a word indicated that she wanted me to help her. I said "Yes, it is." The joy on her face was amazing and she called her husband and was pointing at my PS, saying "Greg, look, just look!" Fortunately, her children never caught on. Adorable.

On the same note, while my PS was waiting to go on 'stage,' many people came up to him and asked for pictures, tell Santa what they want, etc. Those cell phones that take pictures are everywhere! Amazing. Could make a person's head swell, huh?

Another Season

Our first gig is next Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, to light the Tree in Princeton again. We are so glad that they appreciate my Santa; I know he loves to do it. It is a bit of a trek for us, but worth it. I love to see the faces of the people in the crowd as they experience the joy of the season - the 'noise' is happier once the ceremony is complete. For a brief moment, there is more civility. The next day, everything goes back to normal.

We make adaptations because of this season and my Santa's gig. For instance, since he had off from his regular job, we had our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. We did the whole bit - all that was missing were the parades on TV. This gives us the real Thanksgiving day to pack up and get ready for Princeton, and reduces the stress in case he has to work.

We do not exchange Christmas gifts with each other. Not that we do not feel the spirit, but when we need or want something, we save up for it and buy it when it is on sale. Besides, I hate surprises! So that saves us shopping anxiety for Black Friday as well as the entire Christmas shopping season.

We work up a grid each year now, so we do not wear the same costume two years in a row to our repeat customers, unless they request it. The grid also tells us if we have received the contract back yet, the address for the gig and any other pertinent data. It has become invaluable.

There is a whole coordination of planning each year and it does not get any easier, just more recognition as to what to expect.

The Economy

We have started to get bookings for December, but there is a significant difference this year - the price we can charge. During our peak period in the early 2000's, we could charge a premium and nobody would blink. But starting last year, we had to lower our hourly rate to something approximating what we charged 8 to 10 years ago or we would not get many bookings. Part of the reason is, of course, the economy, but another big reason is moving to an area where people do not earn as much and cannot afford as much.



We used to live near Princeton, NJ, where many of the people who are involved in all the Wall Street shenanigans reside. They could afford to have Santa for a couple of hours at a premium rate. Even Christmas Eve, when we doubled our regular charge, was our busiest day and nobody blinked at the cost. Now, we have moved to the Poconos, primarily to escape the high taxes and cost of living in NJ, but we do not get those bookings anymore. A trade-off, to be sure.



The first year we moved, we made arrangements to continue visits with our regulars, through the kind auspices of one of our friends. Still, that situation gets wearing for the host, having your guest Santa coming and going at all hours and basically 'crashing' at night. Formal niceties can be lost in the hectic pace of coming in, changing costumes and running out the door. We almost lost a good friend.



Now, we confine our NJ visits to one weekend each December, try to book our regulars on the one weekend, then continue to farm new clients up here in the Poconos for the rest of the holidays. It is working out okay this way, with our friend considering that weekend our 'traditional' holiday visit. And we are getting regular customers up here.

After all, Santa is everywhere.

Beard Prejudice

Professional Santas who have a "real" beard are very lucky and very well appreciated, especially monetarily. My PS is one of those lucky guys who has had his beard change naturally to a lovely silvery white as he has gotten older. For a while it had a gray-ish tinge, which we tried to bleach out. That was a trial and a bit of a failure, so we decided that if his personality did not sell the character, then he was in the wrong line of work. Again, he was lucky in that nobody noticed what we thought was a defect - he even had comments about how nice it was to have a real-beard Santa! If you read through some of the Santa blogs, the guys get neurotic about the beard; how long it should be, should it be curled, should they bleach and how to bleach. It wears on a person's mind after a while and causes my PS and I to have long discussions about it. Here are my feelings:*If the beard is white, or close to white, use your own beard. If it is not white, look on-line for a good fake beard, like ones used in all the Santa movies. They are out there, they are expensive, but no worse that constant bleaching of a person's real beard. Beard hair is course and hard to bleach, grows quickly, and the chemicals can damage your face.

*Curling is optional, as Santa is depicted with many versions of the beard. Again, beard hair is course and easily burned, as is your skin on your face. My PS does have naturally wavy hair, so sometimes he will wrap the beard hair around his fingers to give a little curl, but not too much.

*How long? Long enough to look like a beard, not a one-week growth. Take the time to cultivate the beard, with proper trimming and training, and plenty of time to get it right before the holiday season. I read a debate in one of the Santa groups about sleeping with the beard under or over the covers! Please, if it is that long, it starts to look fake again, and a little scary. My PS wears his as long as it covers his collar in the front - in other words, if he wears a bow tie, nobody can tell. Any longer and it gets wire-ry and too bushy.

*People come to see the Santa, not the beard. He needs a beard, but he also needs a winning personality.

But what about the other 11 months out of the year? How does a PS keep the beard and still find work? That has been our dilemma where we live in the Poconos. There is an antiquated viewpoint among many employers around here that a beard means unclean, unkempt, or (horrors!) you are an old Hippie! For an area that boasts many outdoor types, hunters and mountain-type guys, there is a prejudice against facial hair. Three day growths= fine; full beards and it may upset the guests, customers, etc.

Now the real beard is my PS's pride and joy, and his money. To shave it off in order to take a moderate-paying service job, like at some of the resorts up here, or some grocery stores, is just a pity. It is not like he can take off one month before the holiday season in order to grow in the beard! He has gone through the interview process, been welcomed with open arms, about to sign the papers to start work and the HR person has said "Oh, when you report to work, you need to shave the beard." Why? "Company policy." Why? "Sanitary concerns." For working at the front desk? The irony is that 'back-of-the-house' personal all had beards and they were doing the cooking, cleaning, etc. The resort had instituted the policy back in the 1960's as part of the knee-jerk reaction against the culture at that time and had never re-visited that policy. I guarantee you that my PS's beard is cleaner than most people's hair, but it is there and bothers some people - except at Christmas! When asked if an exception can be made, the person interviewing usually says "The beard doesn't bother me, but it is policy, so it has to be done." Frustrating!

My PS finds work, to be sure, but it hurts his pride that people cannot see beyond the facial hair - the rest of the year.

Transition to January

After all the hubbub and glory that surrounds a Professional Santa (PS) in the weeks preceding Christmas Day, there is a bit of a letdown emotionally in the weeks directly after. I know my PS does get a little depressed and misses the excitement, as well as being a center of attention. Personally, I look forward to Christmas Day as being the end of a whirlwind of activity involving getting my PS ready for his gigs. There is a whole logistical review of what costume gets worn to which gig, any repairs and cleaning that has to be accomplished, etc. So getting the costumes cleaned, tagged and put away means the start of a new year. And every year my PS and I have a little disagreement about how soon everything has to end... or start again. It is the different viewpoints that keep our relationship exciting, right?

So we have developed a sort of ritual. We ignore Santa for the week between Christmas Day and New Year's Day - unless by some stroke of luck we have a postponed or late Holiday party that needs a PS. (We have had that happen in previous years; this year, no.) Then we look over all the costumes to see if anything needs a better repair, or if it can be improved to be more 'wearable,' or more showy, then wash, hang to dry and assemble the costumes into storage bags, labeling so we know which costumes are contained within the opaque bags. One room in our house ends up looking like a costume house during this process. Still, we take our time with this part, so the transition is not so jarring - I learned this, after trying for many years, that to rush the process leads to a cranky hubby!

Before the trim, the week between the Holidays

After this, we have to lose the "Old Gentleman," as my PS sometimes calls his character. His beard and hair are now naturally white, so he can resemble Santa all year, but that makes it hard to transition into 'civilian' life. So the beard gets shaved down to a semblance of a three-day growth and his shoulder-length hair gets a major cut. He does the shaving, and I cut his hair (I have a bit of an ability to do this, after years of cutting first my mother's hair, then mine and his.) It is impressive how people react after the transformation. My PS went to his regular job after his normal days off and his co-workers did not recognize him! Shows how we expect people to look all the time, and how we become accustomed to the familiar.

This year, because bookings were down and the season did not have as many highs as usual, I thought I might show some solidarity by cutting my hair off as well. Not as a dramatic a transformation as losing the Old Gentleman, but I think it helped us both to see this year as a new start. (Of course, the weather has been incredibly cold since my decision, and I am not used to my neck being exposed, but that is a personal matter - that is why scarves were invented!)

And Santa will be back soon - the hair and beard will start to be allowed back in August. The cycle, Lord Willing and the creek don't rise, continues...

Missed Opportunities

The weekend before Christmas used to be our busiest weekend. Unfortunately, the economy had different plans, so we actually had no bookings the Saturday before the holiday. We were very surprised, but it gave us an opportunity to relax and catch up with each other after some busy weeks. Around 2 pm that day the phone rang with a desperate man hosting a party that night in a suburb of Scranton and can Santa make a visit? Good thing the weather was decent that day - there were ice storms the day before - so we agreed we could do the gig that night. Out of curiosity, we asked how he found us. He relayed a long and convoluted story that involved the mall Santa getting the flu, then the manager of the mall booth helping the gentleman by finding our advertisement with the local TV classifieds on-line. I do not think my PS knows this manager of the Santa booth, but he might from his mall days - we may never know.

We find the house that night and we also found the enclave of very large mansions that seem to be somewhere in every metropolitan area. This one is near a nationally known golf course (duh!), but we never knew it was there. So through a stroke of luck my PS was doing a gig for a very well connected political family in Lackawanna county. They did not know my PS does stories and songs - they thought they were getting a mall Santa who would just sit there and listen to children's wishes for Christmas. They were very pleased and the gentleman has booked for the Saturday before Christmas for next year. Many of the people at the party were talking about booking my PS next year and took our business cards. This may be the break we have been looking for up here!

The next day we had another Breakfast, as well as a private party for a little girl's birthday. This is the missed opportunity, as we got another snow storm with freezing rain all morning. Too bad we don't have reindeer! Snow is one thing, but ice is scary on mountain roads - or anywhere. We had to cancel both gigs. The Breakfast was no problem, as the restaurant where we had the booking never opened that day. But the little girl... hate to disappoint children.

Every booking, unless they are friends, gets a contract. We have a special clause (no joke) that basically states that nobody is liable if weather or 'Acts of God' prevent an appearance. Good thing, but that does not make up for the little girl...

Escapes and Turn-Arounds

Santa is a mythical creation and should have the power to magically appear and disappear before and after each visit. He is supposedly also able to know all - names, wants, etc. Well, as a Professional Santa, we use some tricks to get the information - 'elf lists,' parental intervention ("Tell Santa about the puppy..."), clues on clothing and the like. But that appearing and disappearing trick is another matter... If a party is in a business, or party room at a restaurant, or something like that - we can call ahead and arrange for a changing/preparation room. Even then, the arrival and departure is tricky; it is all part of keeping the 'magical' aspect of Santa.

This Weekend

The one party was at an Elks Lodge for one of our repeat clients. We packed up at 6 am to drive down to the spot in NJ, but roads were icy around our area, so the trip took longer than the original plan. To expedite matters, my PS wore the fur-trimmed pants to his costume, covered by a big overcoat. (This got some funny looks and some finger pointing when he had to get out to pump gas and get coffee - 6 am, after all!) We arrived with 15 minutes to spare at the gig, but as my PS was getting his gear out of the car, some children started to arrive and walk by the car. Thinking fast, he dove into the back seat and tried to look like part of the clothes laying there. Of course, I did not see the children, so I am talking to the new pretend pile of clothes. Now I am getting looks!

Seeing the coast was clear, we hurried in the front door and into the nearby room set up for my PS to change. Okay, 3+ hour drive = need restroom! We enlisted a nearby child-free adult to escort and maintain a perimeter. (If this is sounding like a military-type operation, sometimes it feels that way!) That pressing matter relieved (sorry), my PS gets ready for his gig and I wait out in the car. Usually, I read or nap; after being up since 5 am - I napped. After the party, my PS calls me on the cellphone and I bring in the change of costume for the next gig, as it is at a private home. We have to wait for all the children to leave before he can escape. Since Santa did not get to eat, I bring in only the pants (with fur trim, of course) and clean shirt so we can get some take-out food for lunch before the next party. So where does he put on the top to his costume? In the private party's garage! We call ahead to the host, who also happens to be a good friend, and ask to have the garage door opened so my PS can change. Good thing our host has a sense of humor, as well as the where-with-all to keep children away from the garage area, which has windows! Who knew?

Did we always have this trouble? Yes, and no. At one time my PS had a Volkswagen Vanagon, which had curtains and was tall enough to partially stand up so he could change. But nothing lasts forever; we still say, 'it ran well, it just did not go anywhere,' after the transmission got messed up! We bought another van, but again, nothing lasts forever... Now we travel in a Toyota Camry - good gas mileage, lousy for changing. The vans were not perfect either - every year there is at least one child who wants to 'see the reindeer' and chases my PS out of the party. Then there is a collaborative effort between parents, other adults and my PS running serpentine so the vehicle is not spotted! (Told you it was like a military thing.)

Turn-Arounds

I am beginning to think that some people assume Santa knows his way anywhere and give us directions that seem clear only to people who live in that area. Or, better still, they say "Same place as Last Year, so you know where it is." Let me say this - assume Santa is old and needs more direction! After all, the real Santa has the reindeer and Rudolf to lead - my PS has me and I do not have any magical powers! However, it is fortunate that my mother at one time went to Bingo at this Elks Lodge and I knew some back streets when we got almost impossibly lost when street signs were missing that were part of the directions. It was a case of "I think this road leads us back to..." and looking for a familiar landmark that has not changed since I was 12 (I will not tell you how many years that would be...)

So we were lucky (did I mention this all took place on the 13th!) - we did the parties, we had our fun, we are driving back to the Poconos when the cellphone rings. It is our good friend from the last party telling us we forgot the Autoharp! We were 30 minutes away already, but we turn around and go back to get it, since my PS has a "Breakfast with Santa" the next morning and that is part of the 'act.' We get home, finally, and hurry to bed - the next day is another 5 am wake-up call!