 All
In a Day’s Work
Is That You, Santa Claus?
A Visit with the Village’s Main Attraction
By Tim
McNellie
Santa Claus is going
on a lunch break. As he makes the long walk from his oversized
Santa chair at one end of South Hills Village to the break room at
the other, children shopping with their mothers on this early
Thursday afternoon marvel at the sight of Santa striding through
the mall. Some quietly point. Others tug at their mothers’ coat
sleeves. One little boy begins walking alongside Santa, insisting
that he’s coming along.
It’s these kinds of
reactions that keep Santa, also known as Marshall Ledbetter, 65, a
resident of Atlanta, Georgia, coming back each year. Formerly a
test engineer for Delta Airlines, Ledbetter now spends
January-through-October helping out at a local food pantry. Then
every November, he heads north to South Hills Village where he
listens to the hopes, dreams, and Christmas wishes of local
children. Now in his third year at the mall, Ledbetter has proven
to be a very popular Kris Kringle. We caught up with him between
shifts to talk about life behind the (real) white beard.
How did get you
started as Santa Claus?
At an office party. My company had a party where each department
had a theme, and my department needed a Santa Claus.
I already had the
beard, so they picked me. After that, I did two or three years of
private parties at schools and churches. Then I decided that I
wanted to become a mall Santa.
Is there any training
that a Santa Claus must go through?
We have an organization, the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded
Santas, and we have training for the new Santas. We talk about our
experiences, what we do, the problems we have, and how we solve
those.
What’s the
strangest thing a child has asked you for?
There was this one five-year-old boy who insisted that he needed a
telephone. Anytime he wanted to talk to his friends, his brother
was on the phone. Another was a little girl who was scared of the
boogey-men at night. She stopped by two or three times and we
talked about it. The next year she came back and said that they
were all gone.
What do you tell a
child who’s asking for the impossible, for divorced parents to
reconcile, or that sort of thing?
You always get that, and those are hard questions to answer. I
tell the child that sometimes things happen in life that we can’t
control, and that I’ll make sure that I pray for them and hope
things work out. One thing we never do is promise the kids
anything. Even when they ask for a toy, we say that we’ll see
what we can do.
What do you enjoy
about this?
I enjoy the kids, the interaction with the children. It’s
wonderful to see their eyes light up when they see Santa Claus.
Do kids always have a
specific toy in mind when they come see you?
At this time of the year, no. Sometimes they just want to come up
and give me a hug and chit-chat about whatever is on their minds,
how school is going, what kind of grades they’re getting. There’s
one little boy who likes to talk about the weather.
You’re here at
South Hills Village for about seven weeks. Do you do any
preparation for your time here?
I’m Santa Claus 365 days a year. Even at home, the wife and kids
know who I am [laughs].
What does your family
think of your Santa status?
I have a granddaughter who’s 9, and she thinks it’s the
greatest thing ever.
Are you the real
Santa Claus, or one of his helpers?
If someone asks me if I’m the real Santa, I ask them, “What do
you think?”
|
'Tis
the Season
