There's something about the Christmasy time where a lot of people
are just in belief, and that is special, and I think that is good.
I'm a local Santa in the Seattle area.
I've been doing the Santa bit for 15 years now.
Ho ho ho!
That is very nice,
and that is a wonderful card, I have to tell you.
How did I become Santa Claus, huh?
I had a pal who was looking for a gig, OK,
and so we decided he'd make a great elf.
So, on a whim, I ordered a Santa suit. Well, let's just say
that being an elf was a little rough on him so off he went,
but I loved being Santa and I just kept going and going.
It started up by literally helping somebody who needed a gig
to be their second and finding out later that Santa, he's no second.
Here we go. Here we go.
Say "Merry Christmas!"
Ho ho ho! So, I have done some time in the mall I have,
but for the most part, the way I have built
my career has been around working with some of Seattle's elite.
Some of the wonderful hotels as their Santa for parties
and those kinds of things,
and then I also do a lot of essentially Santa work for free or donation.
Merry Christmas.
Are you excited to see Santa Claus?
Ah, we actually just drove by and saw that Santa was out here,
and so we pulled over.
Santa please give this to someone who is going to end up famous and a world leader.
Oh, wait a minute
that one's for you.
Yeah, yeah, we're on our way to Mercer Island,
where we're going to go see the nice folks at Engel & Völker,
a wonderful real estate crew,
and we're going to go make some wonderful Christmasy smiles
and pictures together.
All right. Very good. Very good.
We hired the Seattle Santa and Mrs.
Claus because they are the best.
Ho ho ho! Hello, how are you doing today?
They are the most amazing Santas and Mrs. Claus.
I think they're the original.
I think they're pretty close to the real thing.
Very good everyone. Wow!
So my deal is this.
So, I personally take half of whatever
I am compensated in the season and we give that away.
One of the questions is "how do we give back, and what do we do?"
We've walked through Pioneer Square handing out gifts to the homeless.
We've this, we've that. We've all these different things.
So this year we formalized a partnership with Mary's Place, OK.
One of the things Mrs. Claus and I do.
We do selfies, right?
We do videos. We do, you know, visit parties, we do all kinds of things.
So this year, there's a lot of potential ways
that people can give a little something to us that we can give to them.
So when you're helping Santa, you're helping Mary's Place too.
Mrs. Claus and I, we've been
running together for a long, long time, and she's very wonderful.
I became Mrs. Claus by supporting the Seattle Santa,
and we were gifted this wonderful costume by one of our clients,
and that is when I truly embraced
the role of Mrs. Claus.
As part of the way we give back to the community,
we set up on 76th and Greenwood every year.
We're there for people in the community and those that drive
from pretty far to come see us and get their Santa photo every year.
OK, I will make a note and I will tell the elves you how good you're being.
We're so excited to be out in the open air this year.
You know, last year we were in the snow globe, the big bubble,
but this year we're doing it where we're out, where we're
all kind of working our way back to normal and we're excited.
I think one of the most special things about Christmas time
we get to bring happiness and joy to everyone that experiences us.
It's really how we can give back to others.
We will make him a wonderful toy this year. I appreciate it Santa.
His beard is real.
So is mine, but his is brilliant.
Ho ho! We appreciate you watching,
and merry Christmas. Ho ho ho!