San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
In socially distant era, jolly Santas find a way
Have beard, will work: Seasonal performers say ‘ Christmas has been altered but not halted’
Virtual visits: Santa Scot Harvest can be scheduled for a free visit on Facebook at Pirate Santa. Santa Ed Taylor can be booked at santa- claus- virtual - visits. com. Scott Doyal can be booked at eap42@ comcast. net. Santa Bob Jacobson is at gigsalad. com.
Vallejo plumber Scot Harvest was on a job when his customer remarked that he looked and sounded like Santa Claus, with his long white beard and booming laugh. He thought about the comment through the end of his shift, then put down his wrench, went home and set his seamstress wife, Sherri, to sewing a redandwhite suit. Six years and four Santa outfits later, Sherri gave in and sewed her own Mrs. Claus costume so they would have something to talk about during the six months of every year when her husband makes appearances as Santa.
But those six months — in which Harvest evolves from Pirate Santa to Victorian Santa to Olde World Santa to Standard Santa — have been torpedoed by the invisible Grinch of COVID19.
“Christmas has been altered but not halted,” says Harvest, 57, who calls himself “Santa Scot” even when not in costume, and sometimes even when on a plumbing job.
As soon as shelterinplace orders came down in March, Harvest started building a film set inside his home office to create a Santa’s workshop for virtual visits. He built cabin walls out of old fencing with a framed window and stocked it with his grandfather’s old woodworking tools, antique toys and a fully trimmed tree. His Standard Santa suit hangs there ready to go.
Since the pandemic, his inperson bookings have crashed by 85%, but his online bookings are up from three in 2019 to an estimated 80 or 90 by the time 2020 will be finished. His Santa income, nearly $ 5,000 in 2019, will drop to $ 500 this year, though he is not complaining. “You can’t stop Santa from coming,” says Harvest, who is not the type of Santa to work day in and day out at malls and shopping centers.