Comments:
Edited Nov 14, 2022
This Christmas season is a culmination of many things for me. My partner and I are finally going to have a somewhat normal season visiting homes, companies, daycares, and hospitals like before COVID. Plus we have been accepted as trainers and teachers to this Santa & Mrs Claus community of over 3500 fellow performers. Our classes are on YOUTUBE and essentially master classes for these entertainers. over the past year we have traveled to numerous cities as Renaissance entertainers. Plus we were instructors at the 4 day national convention of over 600 Santas in Atlanta Buckhead. We have also increased our ability to make props of believability to this industry as well. All in all we have been healthy, active, and inspired to continue this God given path to leave a legacy of Joy and Wonderment.
Edited Jan 4, 2020
In a wonderful interpretation of that saying, " when one door closes, another one opens", my life has totally changed since last year. As I wrote last year, my Mrs Claus partner of 8 years, Cheryl Saxrud, passed away and I was totally devastated. I had a hard couple of months mourning her.
Then, when I received a request from my MN Renfest friends to come back out as Father Christmas in August, I wrote to the FB group saying I would , if , I could find a mother or grandmother of one of the Renfest performers be my new Mother Christmas.
So that's when the miracle occurred, I received a notice on the FB group page that there's a response to my inquiry. The bottom line is I was to find my new partner, Jennifer Beck.
Weeks of phone calls, meetings, and long talks blossomed into a resounding YES. Jenny Lynn Claus was perfect not just as Mother Christmas, but also as my new Mrs Claus!
We went thru the MN Renfest season and were a huge hit. I mentored Jenny and we successfully took on the Christmas 2018 season, visited families, companies, country clubs, and hospitals. A very successful season proved we were compatible and capable of this partnership.
During the spring and summer we traveled to Santa schools and other Renfest locations to get Jenny up to speed as fast as possible. We were accepted by the Santa and Mrs Claus community which meant a lot to our personal acceptance as well. We posted our travels on FB to show our excitement and successes.
This past Christmas 2019 season was very diverse and exciting. We had wonderful responses from our clients. We've been asked by 75% of them to return next year. The future and destiny of this partnership seems to be certain. See the images.
I can't believe this turn around in my Santa Claus career, but it looks like I have been given a new lease to create new memories.
Edited May 26 2018
How do you write about your happiness when you are filled with sadness? These are the challenges we face with having success and love in our lives. Sadly, a month ago, I buried my Mrs Claus partner Cheryl Saxrud who died of complications of ovarian cancer. This happened one week after I was inducted into the Santa Claus Hall of Fame at our national real bearded Santa Claus convention in Denver. . That ceremony came 2 weeks after I returned from a 35th year anniversary celebratory trip to Hawaii. What a roller coaster ride of emotions. I came away from the convention with a new prop line that Santa's love and I was so excited to show Cheryl. It's a special magical box that contains all of Santa's magic fairy dust in bottles that light up because of their magical properties.
Now I have to help close down Cheryl's Mrs Claus Creations business, start making these magical boxes, and get the yard ready for the summer activities. Depression is already seeing in and my incentives are gone. I know from experience that time will heal these pains in my heart but the ache is hard to bear.
Edited Feb 2016....
After graduating in 1965 I worked in NR for a short time as a computer operator after taking computer technical training at a tech school in NYC. Then, with Vietnam bearing down, I enlisted for 4 years with the Air Force in late 1966. Because of my previous computer training, the Air Force trained me on the NORAD Air Defense computers that controlled all the bombers and missiles in the Air Force. I worked in pretty scary, secret environments; ultra safe huge cement bunkers or underground centers. Major aircraft scares, UFOs, and pretty weird stuff went on in those computer buildings since all the generals that controlled the fighters, bombers, and missiles were all way to jumpy. But I did get a great education equivalent to a computer science degree.
I got out of the USAF in 1970, married for the wrong reasons and moved back to NR for a couple of years working on NY department store credit card and inventory computer systems used by Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Bonwit Tellers, Sachs, etc. We had a son and moved to NJ and got promoted again. We moved to DC where my company was bought out by the big super computer company, Control Data. I got promoted up the chain quickly working on 100 megabyte disk drives when they were the size of washing machines [your laptop has 1000s times more storage!]. Fixed 'big iron ' mainframe computer systems at all the major govt sites, even NSA and CIA. Computers back then took up floors of space, cost millions of dollars, and were slower than your average laptop! I got the call to be an engineer working as national technical support and engineering for the disk drive division of my company in Minneapolis. So in 1979 I moved to MN, divorced, remarried for the right reasons and have 2 beautiful daughters; one in business the other a physician assistant. My son married and I have a football hero of a grandson named Tony in the making, and a little diva or Gina Lolabrigida film star lookalike granddaughter named Ava. During the 80s with the new engineering job, I traveled the world doing upgrades, installations, and firefighting on the toughest computer problems. Worked at universities that used the early version of the internet called CSNET. I've been to all the major cities in the US, most of the ones in Canada, and the bigger ones in Europe and South America.
When the disk drives became the size of a large sandwich I started looking for a new job and landed at a spin off of Control Data, called Rorke Data, in 1989. I did everything at Rorke Data from computer and disk subsystem integration to working with Saturday Night Live and Kid Rock to sell them disk storage archive systems. I provided logistical and architectural design used to sell large storage systems to the Video, Film, Surveillance and Medical Imaging and production markets. My technical writing helped me create the company's technical product guides, website, and marketing literature.
On 9/30/12 I was given a little package from Rorke to push me into retirement and I took it! 48 years of being a computer geek and what a ride that was!!! Soon after Rorke was sold, whew, I got out just in time!
Then there is my calling as Santa Claus. www.yoursantatoo.com . Yes it is a calling if you talk to anyone that does Santa. and the amazing part is, like half of the 1500+ Santas that I know, you never saw it coming! I think I am the only Santa Claus in the class of 65 and true to the cause, proud to carry on the spirit of this wonderful character. Plus this has become my new job in retirement !
I became Santa literally over-nite in 1993 when I had a Scrooge type of dream. I dreamt about my good life, wife, kids, job, home, health, etc but I knew I never gave back to the community! I literally woke up and, after remembering the bell ringers on the streets of NYC, contacted the Salvation Army to volunteer as a bell ringing Santa Claus. The local Minneapolis Salvation Army captain was ok with it, So the Saturday after Thanksgiving 1993, I put on a simple Santa Claus costume and I rang bells at the local Target store. I did it for 20 hours each weekend for 6 weeks and I was hooked! I also visited the children's hospitals which became a totally different emotional challenge. That bell ringing schedule lasted 8 seasons and 1000 hours. I was blessed with creating my character that way, seeing 1000's of people ringing my bells in front of Target at 20 below zero. After that 8th year a modeling VP ran into me while at Target and I did some commercial work, started my home and company visit business, and the rest is history.
Santa is a blessing and torture if I may say. 80% of my time is spent in the glory and excitement of the entertainment that we all appreciate. I am a home / company party Santa that spends 1 to 4 hours entertaining children and guests with North Pole anecdotes. I have a full production company and do parades. real reindeer and sleigh rides, carolers, catering, photography, decorations, musicians, face painters and everything else to do with all the logistics and entertainment at a Christmas party. I have some clients that hire me for their formal lakeside dinner of adults only, CEO's that have me entertain families at a restaurant with company provided gifts using my reindeer and sleigh for rides, or have me and my Mrs Claus take pictures with their 1000+ employees and vendors at a major hotel ballroom. 20% of my time is where I find my mission. I visit the homes of the children that cant see Santa because of a physical ailment or go to the neighborhood outreach programs where the poorest of children will receive possibly their only small gift from me. I take photos with the volunteers, those every day people who are givers to the needy community, thanking them for doing what they do. One of these outings happens for 6 hours in mid November in a dilapidated old school run by Volunteers of America. They collect toys, food, clothes, appliances for hundreds of poor families that would never be seen by any social program. I also meet in an Applebees and distribute local Food Shelve contributions or arrive singing "Santa's Coming to Town" to face masked sickly children at Ronald McDonald house. I take a couple of days to visit all of the children's hospitals in the Twin Cities, the toughest being the 3rd floor Cancer clinic at the U of MN. That's where I get hugs from the children that just want the gift of no pain! No one sees this part of Santa and its the hardest part for me for fear of crying while in character but I feel I must do it to bring what little joy I can to the suffering.. And of course I still ring bells for Salvation Army no matter how cold to pay homage to the start of my career back in 1993! Today I am one of the premiere Santa Claus's in the nation and proud of my accomplishments. In my visits I always promote the Reason for the Season, keeping Christ in Christmas, and try to let kids know of the basic virtues like Charity, Diligence, Patience, Kindness, and Humility which always gets a thumbs up from parents and 'how do I' questions from children... Now I also have a new Mrs Claus partner, Cheryl Saxrud, who is a natural at entertaining as the Mrs. She's talented as an jewelry, craft, and Santa Claus doll making artisan. What a great find and compliment to my visits. We compliment each other and are a natural team that our clients love. Our latest venture is home decor in the form of a Christmas Clock, cookie plate and mug, coasters, puzzles, and more to come. In 2013 we reached out to the Santa Claus community and have l launched a successful business selling accessories to them with items like summer casual Santa Claus embroidered shirts, storage pouches that fit perfectly on Santa's belt, Mrs Claus and Santa hats and bonnets, and our biggest seller, Santa's magic reindeer whistle that has the secret compartment for reindeer flying dust ! We will continue to provide unique accessories , see more at www.mrsclauscreations.com
I am in the upper echelon in the Santa Claus community starting with my involvement with over 140 Minnesota Santas. We get together socially and discuss the industry, new toys, business aspects, how to get a photo even with the shyest child, or things like where to get gloves that you can wear that have little rubber knobys on them to turn story book pages! We get together in early November in costume at a restaurant or museum in Minneapolis for a yearly dinner, photo, and comradeship meeting. What an event that is, since the public is there as well! And finally I have participated as chair person for seminars at the national convention for Santa Claus, yes there are conventions for Santa Claus!! Google "Clausfest", "Santa Claus Oath", and "Santa Claus Indiana“ for some interesting reading ! Certainly keeps me young at heart!
2014 ended on a sweet note with the birth of my first daughter's son Nino on Dec 21. Cheryl and I were doing gigs that day and showed up at the hospital in costume to greet the little guy.
The summer of 2015 became a challenge with the discovery of not 1 but 2 forms of skin cancer. A unique form of lymphoma and melanoma were found within weeks of each other. Both were surgically removed and radiated and 3 months later I was told I'm in total remission. Even the bold spot from radiation is covered by my long hair. The good Lord it's definitely taking care of me. I have a busy Christmas season planned so the doctors said "go for it" woohoo!
Sorry for the long essay BUT, I hope you have learned more about me and these past 50 years. thanks for listening....ciao for know
