Jim Charlton reports in the Wall Street Journal:
With fewer families showing up at the mall to visit Santa near the food court, he, too, is meeting his customers where they live: online.Through a service called Talk to Santa, children can have a live video chat for $34.95 with the jolly old fat man from the convenience of home. The Denver-based company has enlisted more than 300 Santas this season, who are expected to deliver more than 10,000 videos, both live and taped
When Hayden and Ethan Speer sat down to tell Santa Claus what they wanted for Christmas, there was a problem: Kriss Kringle’s internet connection was cutting in and out.
“Uh, I can’t hear you, but you can hear me, right?” asked Kevin Fletcher, who was playing Santa in front of his computer in Steubenville, Ohio, while 9-year-old Hayden and 6-year-old Ethan watched him from 1,300 miles away in Tomball, Texas.
The problem was quickly resolved, but the children hardly seemed to notice: Ethan asked for Harry Potter Legos and magnetic blocks, while his sister—who had just learned the truth about Santa—played along, said their mother, Olivia Speer.
With fewer families showing up at the mall to visit Santa near the food court, he, too, is meeting his customers where they live: online.
Through a service called Talk to Santa, children can have a live video chat for $34.95 with the jolly old fat man from the convenience of home.
The Denver-based company has enlisted more than 300 Santas this season, who are expected to deliver more than 10,000 videos, both live and taped, said co-founder John LoPorto. The numbers have grown from about 80 Santas when the service launched five years ago.
That is still a fraction of the estimated 5,200 professional Santas in America, according to Susen Mesco, founder and director of the Professional Santa Claus School, also based in Denver, which has been around for 37 years. She helps hire online St. Nicks.
“The young-gun Santas who get the technology are the wave of the future,” said Ms. Mesco. “Parents are saying, ‘You know what, it’s better than waiting two hours in line.’ ” She said some older Santas, who aren’t as able to go to the mall anymore, also embrace the remote gigs.
The screen Santas have a backdrop behind them to make their homes look like the North Pole. Free recorded phone messages are available from ChristmasDialer.com, such as: “My reindeer always get hungry so I hope you’ll remember to put out a carrot or two for them.”
For $74.95, parents can order a “platinum” gift package from PackagefromSanta.com, which comes with a number of goodies including a photo of Santa holding a baby elf, reindeer food, a “Santa, Stop Here!” window decal—and personal phone call from the man in the red suit.
Not all Santas are enamored of going high tech. “I don’t think I could do it without children in front of me,” Ron DeGroot, a 76-year-old Santa, said as he sat on his throne in the Boise Town Square mall in Idaho one evening last week. “I think some Santas are doing it for the bucks.”
The Santa sat with two assistants manning a photo booth, with no children in line.
Two children eventually came to see Santa and their parents did an eye roll too. “Good Lord,” Nick West said when asked about the video chats, as his daughters, Hayley, 10, and Madison, 5, sat on Santa’s lap at the Boise mall. “Don’t kids sit in front of the screen enough?”
But children, for the most part, seem comfortable with the new medium, Santas report. “They know how to look at the camera, it is completely intuitive to them,” said Mark Griffith, 52, of Seattle, who has done Talk to Santa chats. He is planning to host a live video as Santa on his Instagram this year for his friends and their children.
“If five or six join, it won’t be a big deal,” he said. “If a lot more, we’ll see. But it’s not like I’m Kim Kardashian.”
Kim Cuff began arranging video chats for Santa with her children in 2014. The Plainfield, Conn., resident was attracted to Talk to Santa’s advance questionnaire in which she could provide details such as that her toddler daughter Fiona loves anything involving Mickey Mouse.
“It’s really neat when you log on and Santa already knows everything about your kids,” said Ms. Cuff, 38. “When you go to the mall, it’s ‘What do you want for Christmas and move along.’ ”
With six children, and the youngest three under age 5, Ms. Cuff said she also worries about their getting frightened of a store Santa or catching a cold from the crowds.
Being a video Santa requires different skills than sitting at the mall. “There is an art form to this,” said Ms. Mesco, who runs a training program called Professional OnLine Education for Santas, or P.O.L.E.S.
“Some guys I told, ‘Whoa, you need nose hair trimmers.’ I tell others to put makeup on, because people don’t want to see your burst blood vessels or your blackheads.”
Ms. Mesco also implores her students to cool it on the hand movements. For instance, Bob Rediske, a 60-year-old Santa from Newport News, Va., began his first session earlier this year with the wrist bells he has always used appearing at local stores.
“On video, you want to let your face do the talking, but I could tell that first run those bells were hampering me,” said Mr. Rediske, 60, a retired ship test engineer.
One big headache has been that Santa and his helpers sometimes have to provide tech support for parents. “This one lady had Windows XP, and I literally installed Windows 10 for her and it took about two hours,” said Mike Trahan, another co-founder of the chat service who goes by “Elf Mike.”
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