OH I WISH IT COULD BE CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY...
... well for this Nebraskan couple it is. Meet Santa and Merry Christmas Claus, for whom the joy of the festive season is a year-round event
You know the way Christmas starts earlier and earlier each year? It gets to the point where the days between Halloween and December 25 are brimful of festive cheer, but then leave us fatigued, slightly hungover husks by St Stephen’s Day?
For one Nebraskan couple, Christmas is such a magical time that they want to celebrate its tinsel-topped splendour all year round. In fact, the pair – who were formerly Jeff and Mary Brookstein – love Christmas so much that they legally changed their names by deed poll, to Santa Claus and Merry Christmas Claus. The married couple, both 60, walked into the Douglas County Courthouse in Nebraska in 2016.
‘It took us 20 minutes to complete the paperwork,’ says Merry. ‘We just went to the county courthouse and changed our names.’
‘I came home one day and said, “You know, what about changing our names?” And she said, “I was thinking about that yesterday”,’ says Santa.
Certainly, Santa and Merry are every inch like their festive namesakes. Santa, 60, boasts a white beard – he says he has had this since he was 18 – and jolly demeanour. His wife, meanwhile, looks very much his kindly, ever-faithful companion. As you might imagine, the two – who are in Dublin on a promotional visit for TK Maxx, and suitably attired for the time of year that’s in it – are cutting quite the swathe across the Irish capital. Youngsters delightedly approach them, while grown-ups are tickled pink with the pair.
‘That doesn’t change, regardless of what’s going on anywhere in the world,’ notes Merry. ‘Goodness and joy have a place anywhere.’
Changing their names legally has resulted in one big upshot when they’re out and about: when children ask the pair if Santa is the Santa Claus, he can whip out his driving licence or passport and truly dazzle them with a piece of ID that proves that he is who he says he is. To be able to bring people, both young and old, that sense of wonderment is hugely important to them both.
‘We get people asking us all the time, “is that really him?”, and we’ve been asked to see our licences a lot,’ notes Merry.
‘It’s like I always say, it’s important that everyone who puts on a red suit is imitating the real Santa Claus, but more specifically the happiness that Santa brings.
‘How did you feel, for instance, when you were told you were going to interview Santa Claus and Merry Christmas?’ he asks. I smile; clearly I’ve made his point for him. ‘See? You started laughing. In our everyday life and in our street clothes, everyone loves it. Mom smiles, and when I talk to the children, it’s magical.’
Santa and Merry profess to be utterly crackers about Christmas, but it has little to do with presents, food or boozy bonhomie. I ask if they break out the mince pies in April, sing hymns in September, or have tinsel and trees up in August. ‘I think you’re missing the point,’ says Santa kindly. ‘It’s what’s in our heart.’
Adds Merry: ‘It’s not about the trees and the lights and all of that. It’s about the joy. Can you
“GOODNESS AND JOY HAVE A PLACE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD”
imagine if you were able to tell someone your name and it made them happy?’
As it happens, Santa and Merry don’t have a sleigh in the driveway, although they do have a real deer. The two tend to wear their ‘day clothes’ while out and about in Nebraska – although Santa often carries a staff, which rather gives the game away.
‘The military have their dress blues, and we have our dress reds,’ explains Santa. ‘We wear our dress reds on special occasions, but we walk around town, we are in our street clothes. I never approach a child in the street, but what I do have is cellphone pictures of us in our dress reds, and I’ll ask the parents if it’s okay if I show them the pictures. But we’ve been doing this for nine years now. Grown men and womem will approach us while we’re eating in a restaurant and ask to sit on my lap and take pictures.
Rather, keeping Christmas alive year-round is a state of mind. ‘The spirit of Christmas is really the joy you feel in your heart,’ says Merry. ‘It’s about the happiness you bring to others. Really, it’s what we try to maintain every day. We try to make every person we meet feel that way, by bringing the goodness and happiness of Christmas to them.
‘It’s less about the commercial and more about making gifts and sharing love and sharing family time together,’ she adds. ‘That’s the spirit of Christmas. You don’t start celebrating Christmas until November, but the way we do Christmas, we start on January 1 and go right the way through to December 31,’ enthuses Merry.
As to how everyone can bring ‘the spirit of Christmas’ into their lives year-round, Merry notes: ‘If you remember that every person you encounter, even those that are not necessarily having a good day, are special people, and if you remind yourself when you’re looking in front of you that this person has something special about them, then every person becomes special to you, and you keep the joy of giving with you, yearround. It’s so simple – people think it sounds very complicated until they try it, and then they realise it is very easy.’
Still, every so often, the line between the Santa made flesh and his fictional, gift-giving alter ego starts to blur. When I ask the Nebraskan couple how they make December 25 so special when it’s Christmas year-round, Santa replies as though stating the obvious: ‘Well, I deliver presents all over the world on Christmas Eve, so on Christmas Day, I’m so worn out that I sleep.’
The couple’s own story is slightly more grounded in reality. The pair met online nine years ago and started to date. Merry soon became Mrs Claus to his Santa for appearances at Christmas parties, day cares and nursing homes. Two years after they met, Santa proposed to Merry knowing that he had met his match, and the rest is history.
In the off-season, Santa drives a taxi in his native Nebraska, while Merry volunteers with several nonprofit groups. Santa has a granddaughter from a previous relationship, who clearly delights in having Santa as a granddad, while the couple’s extended family and friends couldn’t be prouder of them, not least when, notes Merry, ‘we’re out and about and we don’t have to introduce ourselves’.
‘I fell in love with this man who could dance with a 102-year-old woman or play with a 6month-old child and everybody in between,’ says Merry. ‘He had these beautiful brown eyes and a fabulous heart. He was truly Santa Claus to me.’
FOR more information on TK Maxx’s Neverending stocking, which allows shoppers to enjoy the endless feeling of Christmas year-round, see tkmaxx.ie