Dalekboy

Most of you know I'm a working Santa. It's a job I love. People seem to expect the kids to be horrors, but in fact they're mostly pretty great. But the problem is the inequality.

Every year I'll get children through who want a single item for Christmas - a doll, or a game, or a truck - and I'll get the ones with lists that would challenge the carrying capacity of a Mack truck. The thing is, this often reflects their expectations of what they'll get for Christmas.

And of course, the kids are told that Father Christmas has brought most of their presents.

So after Christmas, when the kids are talking about what they got, you end up with one child who got a single small gift from St. Nick, while another talks about their new trampoline, gaming system, bike, remote controlled toy... all of which are also presents from Santa.

While that's lovely for those that get lots, it leaves any number of other children regarding their one or two gifts, and wondering why Santa doesn't like them as much. And that's without taking into account the children who won't get any presents at Christmas.

I'm not saying that if you can afford to buy your child lots of presents, and you want to, that you shouldn't. And I'm not asking everyone to go out and buy a raft-load of toys for the various charities that pass them on to the people who can't afford to buy things for their children, though that'd be nice.

All I'm asking people to do is to just pick one, not the biggest, or most expensive, and say that's the special gift that Santa has brought for them. If you want, tell them that you bought the other presents, and asked Father Christmas to deliver them especially, but please, don't let them think that every parcel is a personal gift to them from St. Nick.

Chances are it won't make that much difference to your child, but after Christmas it will hopefully help any number of other kids feel like Santa isn't playing favourites, or wondering why he doesn't like them.

Over the last few days I've been gradually feeling slightly sicker every day. It's slightly annoying, especially as I'm feelin' particularly RS today, and I'm going to be Santa-ing tonight and tomorrow.

Mind you... gunna love playing Father Christmas no matter how sick I feel. May even wander the neighbourhood in costume tonight after I get back, depending on how the heat has hit me.

Mind you, even though I feel blah, the video below is made of awesome and has cheered me right up. I think it's the joyous laughter at the end :)

Well, I've gone and put myself up on eBay!

Would have preferred a funnier write-up, but I didn't have a lot of time. Wanted it to finish with plenty of time to figure out the details, assuming anyone takes me up on it. Also, given the nature of the thing, and that people would be allowing a stranger into their homes, I thought something not too silly would be a good idea. I wanted to put it up under services, but for that you have to quote a firm figure. If someone can figure a better category than Personalised Gifts, that will let me do the auction format, would love to hear it.

Feel free to spread the word, too. On one hand I'm hoping some nice family will get me for the cost of petrol money. On the other, if bidding went insane, that'd be kind of nice. First pref though is cover my costs and give some kids a great surprise.

I Santa-ed for one particular family for a few years, and loved doing it, so I'm half hoping to be able to again. As it is, I contacted my friend Glenn and told him my beard was gone in preparation for tomorrow, so I would be able to pay a visit in costume to his kids at Christmas. Looking forward to that.

Well, I was forced to open the Tardis Playset and put it together because no-one had bought it. What's extra good about it is that once you get it put together, you get a free engineering degree! Strangely, once completed I wasn't so thrilled... for about 10 minutes. Then I started wondering why I hadn't been happy before, as it was a fabulous toy! Because I know some of you will be curious, I present some pictures below the cut.

There are also a couple of pics I've been meaning to get up for a couple of days. ( Read more... )

Just a short post. Santa-ing today went great. Woman I'm working with is the best photographer I think I've dealt with, in that when I'm given very small babies, she takes the camera off the tripod and brings it over so she can get a decent shot of the pair of us, instead of taking a standard photo of a big Santa with a little bundle.

We did three and a half hours without a break. I didn't notice the time passing because we were so busy! In the middle of it there was a fire alarm, so we all trotted outside. Of course, I had to stay in character, which was amusing. It was a false alarm, and on my way back in, I paused to shake hands with the fireys and wish them a Merry Christmas, much to everyone's amusement.

At the end of the day, we finished up and as I walked off, I overheard one of the staff saying to Nikki the photographer, "He's the best Santa ever!"

It's nice when people tell you these things, it's even nicer when you overhear it being said *beams*

If you live in or near Canberra, the Entertainment Store, the company I do Santa-ing for, need someone to play Santa at Fyshwick, probably at the Harvey Norman store there. Hours are from 1pm-4pm every Sat & Sun from Nov 24th until Christmas, not sure of the rate of pay. Probably $20 an hour or more, but no promises on that.

If it runs the way it did my first year, suit and all the gear will be provided. I don't know if they'll have a Santa workshop up here or not. You can talk to me to find out more on the basics, and ring them on (03) 9527 8644 to make further inquiries, if you're still interested. You will have to have a police check done.

I'm assuming they only want males for the job of Father Christmas, though there may be openings for Elves if you're a lady-person.

You know how I said I wouldn't shave my beard off for one Santa gig?

( Well, I lied... )