In the United States, there is a shortage of not only goods, but also Santa Clauses: they find very unexpected replacements

As it turned out, in the United States, there is not only a shortage of goods due to supply problems, but also a shortage of Santa Clauses. How do the owners of New Year's businesses get out of this situation? The Washington Post.

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A few weeks ago, Courtney's boss Bryant approached her with an assignment. He said it was really important and would probably take some time. According to her, he "pretended it was going to be a really big deal." "He said," I need you to find Santa. "

Her boss sits on the board of directors of the Fort Worth nonprofit, which is hosting the event on December 4. He needed a man who could play Santa for the children present. And it seemed an easy task, it turned into a whole quest. She started going to many agencies looking for Santa, but he was nowhere to be found.

In total, she estimates that she approached about 50 different companies, and they all turned down. Everything got so terrible: "I was thinking about asking my husband because he has a big thick beard and kind of long hair." Finally, one company responded to her request through the GigSalad website. Bryant signed a $ 320 contract for two hours of Santa Claus with a fake beard: "If we wanted a real beard, that would be a hundred dollars more." But she has no idea who is coming to the party.

“I don’t even have a picture of Santa. “I don’t know what he looks like,” she says. “The woman I spoke to on the phone from the company said Santa will contact you 48 hours before the event.”

According to Bryant, the worst-case scenario is the plot of the movie "Bad Santa," which stars Billy Bob Thornton as a sex-obsessed alcoholic Santa who moonlights as a professional thief.

The nationwide worker shortage is affecting a variety of industries, including fast food, textile factories and long-haul trucking. The crisis extends all the way to the North Pole: While major shopping centers are largely protecting their Santas (they sign contracts with them months in advance), there aren't enough Santas to meet demand for holidays and festivals this year. The problem isn't low pay—the average rate for a hired Santa Claus is $30 an hour, and many experienced Santas make $150 an hour or more.

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“I've noticed an uptick in requests, but when it's already booked up, there's nothing I can do,” says Doug Eberhard, a Santa Claus in Charlotte. “I have 92 events booked before Christmas.”

The Santa Claus Agency and Mrs. Klaus HireSanta have been denying requests for weeks.

“Hundreds of people contact us every day,” says founder Mitch Allen. — We always have sales on the weekends, but usually it happens after Thanksgiving. This year, all Santas were fully booked by the first week of November.”

The pandemic has hit the Santa Claus community hard for obvious reasons: Many of the men playing this role are at high risk of a COVID-19 pandemic due to their age. Santa's physique tends to have potential comorbidities, starting with a high BMI.

“Several hundred Santas have passed away in the last 18 months, and it's just tragic,” Allen says, although he cautions that not all of those deaths may have been related to COVID-19. Others, wary of the risk of being around potentially unvaccinated children, decided to take another pandemic leave or retire.

Santa Tim Connagan, dubbed "National Santa Claus" for his role in major parades, polls his fellows every year, reporting that 18% of Santa Claus survivors have taken a vacation. This year he is taking fewer bookings so he can spend more time with his family.

“I've had all my vaccinations and I'm taking very good care of myself,” says Connaghan. “But I want to stay careful, you know, and I also encourage other Santas to do the same.”

Mezzanine Bicomb is the founder of Circus Modern, a San Francisco-based talent brokerage for stilt walkers, acrobats, and other party performers including Santa Clauses. Each holiday season, she brings together a troupe of five Santas, who take orders for visits to private houses. But she lost several regulars to travel and illness and began looking for a replacement after Halloween. She quickly realized she was behind schedule. She posted several job advertisements on the Internet. But things didn't go as planned.

"The people who responded were very young to be Santa Claus," she says. — Others didn't want to work on Christmas Eve. Several applicants were construction workers with no experience of playing or working with children. Of the candidates, she only hired one person, who is probably too young for the job - she will fix that with stage makeup."

Instead of digging around fruitlessly, it seems like the easiest thing to do would be to hire your grandfather or uncle—or, really, any man with a beard and a twinkle in his eye, right? But there are problems here too. Santa is nothing without his red fur-trimmed suit, and that too has supply chain problems.

“There are a lot of needed items that are still at sea in containers,” a Costumes for Santa spokesman said. — Our wholesalers did not receive goods from China. Things that were supposed to come in August are just starting to come now.”

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“Meanwhile, aspiring Santas are buying costumes and accessories in record numbers, perhaps to make a little magic happen. At Party City, we are already seeing a significant increase in purchases of Santa costumes, hats and accessories compared to last year, as well as an increase compared to pre-pandemic Christmas 2019,” says Julie Roem, the company’s chief marketing and experience officer.

Eberhard Charlotte also owns the Pro Santa Shop and most of the items are already out of print.

“I sold four or five of my personal suits at a premium just because people were desperate,” he says.

But one suit may not be enough. An unverified Santa can ruin a child's Christmas and undermine their sense of trust if they are not adept at the art of improvisation.

“A lot of them just think that if they put on a beard and a Santa suit, kids will believe them, and some will,” Eberhardt says. “But for the most part it’s not very believable.”

Perhaps this lack is an opportunity to rethink what makes Santa “believable.” For most of the last century, this meant a man who was plump, gray-bearded, old, and generally Caucasian. Maybe the gap in the market will open up opportunities for Santas who don't fit the mainstream mold: black, deaf, Hispanic.

Connagan is trying to create a talent pool through the Old Navy-sponsored Santa Bootcamp, which recruits Santa Clauses from a variety of backgrounds.

For example, Hunter Woodson, who has plenty of performances despite being clean-shaven, has a baby-faced 21-year-old. His suit is so good that when people see him without a suit and a beard, they say: "Come on, he can't be, he's just a child."

He plays along with the fact that he walks with his shoulders down, but he can also perform tricks that other Santas would not be capable of. Woodson founded the Blue Ridge Christmas Cottage, a tourist attraction in Lovingston, Virginia, and he climbs down the chimney during performances.

“It’s crowded, but it works,” he says.

Or there are Santas who approached their role in a completely different way. Rosario Smyrne, 42 was moved by the spirit of the holiday and took part in the game, planning to donate his proceeds to charity. He has short black hair, only a few strands of silver in his dark beard, and looks younger than his age. Therefore, he called himself "Santa Maverick".

If children ask why he doesn't look like Santa, whom they saw on TV, he has a ready answer that he usually looks like that.

“As we get closer to Christmas, my beard gets longer, whiter, and I gain a little weight,” he explains. “That’s when I dress in a red and white suit.” And this is my current state right now.”

He doesn't know if it really works, but people are booking him.

“In 12 hours I had 27 offers,” he says.

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Maybe Santa's alternative shouldn't be Santa at all. Connagan sent Santa's wife to where Santa isn't.

“She can say, Santa is so busy, so he asked her to come and find out what the kids want for Christmas, and then she’ll tell Santa,” he says.

But Mrs. Klaus is also missing. Justin Raprager spent weeks looking for Mrs. Klaus to complete his farm in Odessa, Florida for the winter festival. Of the 50 applications he received, the overwhelming majority did not respond, and the few who showed up were unable to fill enough shifts.

“It shouldn’t be this hard,” Raprager laments. “It's a fun job that pays $20 to $25 an hour, and the only responsibility is to sit in a chair and read books to the kids.” No experience required."

She “cannot be a sex offender or have a criminal record. They must be cute, know how to read, and love children. You know, those are the only requirements,” he says. There are free lunches and holiday bonuses.

He has one promising candidate, an English as a foreign language teacher, but she can't work all season. Another Mrs. Klaus offered to come from Minnesota if he would pay her living expenses, which would significantly increase his budget, but "honestly, we have to consider this." Fortunately, he managed to keep his Santa Claus from last year.

But despite the dismal results this year, there is still some good news. Even if Santa can't come to the Christmas tree or a corporate party, "Santa Claus will definitely deliver gifts under the Christmas tree."

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