Saturday, November 26, 2005

Real Believers???????

The WOW warm up this morning was alright, I finally had convinced one of the assistant managers from Cherry Hill to attend. And we were at standard # 14 it was perfect. Smile - we are always on stage. Maintain positive eye contact and use phrases such as "Good Morning, Certainly, I'll be happy to". Avoid using such phrases as "Yeah, Nope" and other slang words.
One thing for sure is that Santa is always on a very noticeable stage, and and needs to be of good cheer at all times.

Then I was asked to share some infromation I received in an e-mail from one of the Santa organizations I belong to. A television station in southern California must have been real bored and had decided to make Santa look bad. They had an actor apply for a position as a mall Santa using the name of a deceased convicted pedophile, then made the mall and the photo company look bad for not doing a background check on the Santa. So now it is possible that other media people will be attempting to do there own stories about Bad Santa's. So this Santa doesn't even want to see any media people around. It is good to know that there are people in the administration office who have been trained in how to deal with these problems. My guess is the producer probably did not get what he or she had asked for one year way back when. This Santa has been through several backround checks and I am sure that if anyone really needed the information to do another one on me I would have absolutely no problem with it.

There was a time when the mall or department store Santa was someone who could not get any real work and was willing to put on the fake beard and suit to get enough money for his next bottle of booze and pack of smokes. In recent years since more and more real bearded Santa's have appeared on the scene, we have worked hard at maintaining higher standards making being a Santa an more honorable and professional thing to do. None of us who have this commitment have any use for those who make us less than that. I have been asked a couple times this year to participate in photo events that would have been in really poor taste and put a bad spin on Santa. I adamantly denied the request as well as asked the people who made them not to do that with any Santa image. With the stories I am putting into this blog it sure makes it hard to believe how an old drunk or someone just looking for the paycheck would handle them.

Some times I wonder who the biggest believers are in Santa Claus, the children or the adults? This was an absolutely wonderful day, I had 195 Santa visits. One of the early visits and photos was with Justice, he was a lot of fun sitting with Santa and getting his picture taken. He was there with Mom, Dad and Grandma. When the photo was picked out and all were happy or so I thought.

Then grandma wanted to talk to Santa, I was sure she was going to say something like Santa had done a great job with her grandson. So I told her to just sit right on down on Santa's knee. Then the story started she informed me the last ten years of her life had been a real mess she had lost her husband and had been estranged from her family. Today was the first time she had been able to spend time with her son and grandson, the story went on from there for several minutes and it had not gotten busy yet so Santa listened. The details do not need to be put in this format. She then put in her Christmas request, she asked that she could stay reunited with her family so she would not be feeling so lonely. She was sure looking for something to believe in, I asked her if she had ever seen the movie Polar Express or read the book. When she told me she had not, I gave her a bell and suggested that she buy the movie and then go home and watch it with her family then she would understand the meaning of the bell.

Had to be the greatest laugh of the day, a little girl came up we took photos no problems, mom & dad picked out what they wanted and went around front to do the money thing. Then this little lady comes flying back through the barriers with 2 wallet sized photos in her hand. They were of her and Santa taken at another mall from 2 different years past. As she is fanning them in my face and saying do you remember when we took these photos, I looked at them and said why yes and that you sure have grown since these were taken. It sure wasn't this Santa in those photos but she believed and that is what counts.

Lunch time came and went and several people had been by to see Santa. I was informed that one Mom would be bringing her 2 boys by for a visit and that they had written up there list, mom was requesting the letters back so she could get what they were asking for. Not a problem for me I am used to that happening. Later the two boys came by with Mom and I was told that the oldest one was not so sure he believed in Santa. Well I have been trying to ge the people who are working on the Santa set to get the names of the children and let me know that in advance of a child comeing up to Santa. This time it worked out real well as soon as I called them by name I could see all the doubt gone. We read the letters together they were short and just asked for a couple items each. They had photos taken and once again I thought all was well. It sure is a good thing I don't get paid to think.

We were busy enough that the computer had overheated, so when I saw Andy (the General Manager at Plaza Bonita) and Tim (he does not really have a desk or office as of yet so I am not sure what his title is maybe he is the manager of building operations I am not sure all I know is that he works out of the administration office and wears a tie) of doing a walk around, I asked them if they could come up with a small fan that we could put in behind there to keep it cooled down. They turned to me and almost in unison said Santa we are your biggest fans. Then Tim came back around and surveyed the situation and cam up with a temporary fis anyway. The computer box just needs to have better ventilation on the rear.

Then what was almost a real train wreck happened. I went for my dinner break and the above mom had come back by to see if I would deliver some Christmas gifts right on the Santa set to her two boys. She had told one of Santa's helpers that the boys had lost their father just a few months ago and that it would mean the world to them. The helper said YES!!!!!! Upon my return from dinner I was informed of this situatuion. I then had to explain to the helper that I would love to be able to do that for them but that if I did the other children in the mall would be wondering why Santa did not do that for them. It is something like my bells yes I give some of those away but when I do no one else knows what is going on. We did come up with a reasonable conclusion to this scenario. Someone had come with packages and they were left at the front counter. When I saw mom and her boys show up I went to the front counter to explain to mom, by now the boys had their packages and I knew that I was supposed to tell them not to open them until Christmas, so as I was walking behind the counter the boys said Thank You Santa andnot many heard them say that. I did say do not open them until Christmas. I probably would have been willing to deliver them after I finished up at Plaza Bonita under these circumstances, but this worked out alright. Mom had joyful expression on her face as I explained to her and she said she understood. Then I had to ask he if she had seen the Polar Express, she said yes it was her favorite movie, in fact she had just purchased it that day. I asked her to wait just one moment. I went for my bells and gave her three very discretly and told her always make sure she and her boys could hear the bells ring and then thanked her.

Then there was Sydney, I remebered her from last year mom had tried many many times to get her photo with Santa. The problem was she was kicking and screaming the whole way everytime. Sydney showed up with her Christmas letter to Santa, short to the point I want a Dora House, now I am sure she was feeling guilty as well for she had a baggie with 3 freshly baked cookies in in to give to me she was even willing to give up her stuffed toy. Today she got a photo with no crying or screaming.

As we were closing up tonight one of Santa's helpers said I am going to have to go rent the movie you asked that lady about. She told me that after I went back to the chair the lady had big tears come up in her eyes, I did not see that but I did catch the kiss she blew at me. The helper said she needs to find out why that lady was crying.

So I really think we are all looking for something magical to believe in, or somehing to give us hope. If you read about Saint Nicholas and the legend that followed it is my opinion that those early believers were looking for the same thing. So when a person see's this in the form of a real person such as Santa maybe it just restores their belief in something greater than all of us.

Alright with 195 visits today we are up to 1033 for the season so far. That average is just 74 per day. It should not be long before we are doing 100 to 150 per day during the week, I will stick my neck out and say the last several days will be 250 to 300 per day minimum.
Well as I am doing the editing on this posting early this Sunday morning Mrs Claus has called me and I have lost my voice so I will be looking around this hotel room to see where I left it. Maybe someone slipped into my room last night and took it from me. Oh well it will make for an interesting day.

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