The first time I put on the red suit was my freshman year in high school.  The little mall in my hometown was looking for a few people to portray Santa for the holiday season.  They contacted my church and offered to donate a few dollars an hour to the youth group if we would help and fill in as needed. So, I thought it might be fun to give it a try. The suit was a cheap one, and the beard was obviously fake.  But to the children who came to visit, I was Santa, and each one had a very real sense of awe as they sat on my lap. Little did I know that this volunteer mall Santa experience would eventually lead me to portray such an iconic figure on a professional basis.  

One of my fondest memories of that first experience being Santa came from a special little girl who visited me.  Every time I sat in the chair, she would come and sit on my lap for a short conversation – usually bringing me some cookies that she’d made for me with the help of her mom or a picture she had recently drawn of the two of us.  Her mother secretly let me know that I was the only Santa her daughter wanted to see, and if I was not in the chair, she would ask her mom to take her back home.

One day, while we were having our time together, she informed me that I was her favorite Santa.  

“Favorite Santa?!” I replied with a sense of shock in my voice.  “I am the only Santa.”

She got a very serious look on her face and proclaimed, “Oh Santa, you may not know it, but when you leave, another one comes!”

To this day, that little girl enters my mind every time I get ready to sit in the chair at a mall or enter the home of a family that is looking forward to a visit with Santa. The joy I experienced with her is something that I continue to feel with every child I meet.