Mr. and Mrs. Claus return for the smiles
Santas-for-hire share what makes donning the red suit worthwhile
Saint Nick isn’t the only whitebearded man gearing up for the holidays.
Across Canada, hundreds of professional Santas don the big red suit at malls, parties and private houses — inhabiting not only the clothes but the mystique of the magical man who delivers gifts to many millions of children around the world in a single night.
The appropriately named Ted Carroll, a Santa-for-hire based out of Halifax, says nothing beats seeing the smile on children’s faces when they see the man of the month on their doorstep.
“I’ve had kids pee themselves, I’ve had one kid say profanely, ‘Holy beep, it’s Santa Claus!’” said Carroll, 53, during a phone interview from his home in Halifax. “This stuff, if it doesn’t warm your heart or make you laugh, something’s wrong.”
Toronto professional Santa Kerry Burns said he’s been em- braced by people from all sorts of different religious backgrounds, adding that the magic of Santa “transcends all sorts of different cultures.”
“I get to learn more about life by playing Santa than anything else, because you see people from all different walks of life,” said Burns, 56.
“I get to see people every age, every nationality ... all the externals disappear, and there’s just love in that moment.”
Rozmin Watson is the “North Pole operations manager” with the British Columbia-based Hire A Santa, which works with more than 100 Santas from across the country. Watson said what really makes a good Santa is how passionate he is about his job.
And that goes for Mrs. Claus, too. In 2016, Carroll’s wife, Kim, created a Mrs. Claus costume so she could tag along.
“I was taking him to the different events, and I’d be sitting in the car and freezing my tushie off while he was inside,” she said. “One day it came in my head: What am I doing sitting out here when I could be having fun with him? So I made my own costume and away I went.”