The North Wind Doth Blow

The North wind doth blow, and we shall have snow,
And what will the robin do then, poor thing?--16th Century Nursery Rhyme


This year the Santa season actually kind of started in El Coyote Cafe, my favorite Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles, on the evening of September 29 (my dad's 85th birthday by the way.) Dear friends Peter Jansson and his wife Kristen Echols took me out to eat as a break from all the stress of the move. It was a badly needed break. When Peter and I went to sit at our table, a man carrying his son walked by, the boy being toted looked at me and said, "Hi Santa." The response of the boy rather amused Peter. I count that small encounter at El Coyote as the official start of my 2010 Santa season.

Santa really began to kick into gear for me October 29th, when I was engaged by Central Casting to be one of the Santas on an episode of "The Mentalist". It was just a silent bit thing, but hey, it was S.A.G. scale for a day of just basically hanging around and eating on the Warner Bros back lot. the episode aired on Dec. 9. I haven't seen it yet, but friends have said they deifinitely did see my face on screen. All the Santas working that episode were supposed to park in the futhermost parking lot from the studio which meant about a half mile walk for me. In my prayers that morning, I reminded The Man Upstairs of how bad my knees are, and He took care of it. When I arrived at Warner Bros, I pulled into the wrong gate. The attendant told me I had to turn around and go park in Peanut Heaven. I showed him my Handicapped placard and told him I'd never be able to make that walk with my knees being what they are. He then asked for my driver's license, a few seconds later, he handed me a printed studio drive-on pass and gave me directions to the location. I said, "Man you are the best!" He answered, "Santa, I want a Barbie doll for Christmas, a real live one!" I replied, "For you, I am going to look into that seriously!" Proof yet again that it is easier to get forgiveness than permission. I was the only Santa that got a drive-on. I was able to park right next to the wardrobe trailer. I didn't really noise about my good fortune with the parking for fear I'd be lynched. All the other guys had to hoof it. The shoot itself was fun and a bit grueling for me as I had to do a lot of standing. the very attentive crew made sure I had a place to sit whenever we weren't rolling.

With "The Mentalist" shoot and my Halloween stint at the costume shop over, the first week in November, I drove to Mesa, AZ with my cousin, Donna Jo. I stayed with a couple of my favorite people, Marc and Denna Denton. They always go the extra mile to make sure Andrea and I am comfortable whenever we visit them. My life-long friend, Mary Ellen Reese-Loose came over to the Denton's one night; it was so good to see her. She and Marc played a duet of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony on the piano. It was the best! In addition to my visit with the Denton's and ME, I got a chance to see my cousin, Ericka Nielsen, and high school buddy, Randy Reidhead. I did attend my high school reunion that week-end. Determined not to call attention to myslef while there, I sat quietly in a cheap piece of crap plastic chair. The chair did not cooperate, and collapsed and shattered under me. Great! The guy with the biggest butt at the reunion ends up flat on his behind in a sea of shattered plastic. So much for my plans not to call attention to myself and embarrass myself. The proprietress of the place came running over and asked if I was hurt. I said, "Yes, but not in the way you think!"

The day after the reunion I do a santa photo session for the Denton's, their sons, and grandchildren.

From Mesa, I drove up to Utah the following morning. (I-89 out of Flagstaff is a much prettier drive than heading up to Utah on I-15 out of Los Angeles. The California desert is truly butt ugly!) Once I got through the Navajo Reservation, and into the state of Utah, it began pouring rain. I battled snow flurries and rain all the way into Utah Valley. It was as if the heavens were protesting my being there! I arrived in Lindon around 2:30, and I have to tell you after not seeing my wife for nearly four months, she was definitely a sight for sore eyes that afternoon. It's hard to be apart when you are married to the love of your life. She has been living at her sister's place in Lindon. Since there was not room for me there, I stayed at my cousin's place in Orem. Ergo, after 18 years of marriage, Andrea and I were dating!

My reunion with Andrea was an all too short two weeks, as I had to return to Los Angeles by Thanksgiving. But, in that two-week time period, I managed to get my foot in the door as Santa in Utah. The first experience came when I had gone to Wal-Mart with Missus. While sitting on a bench inside the store, a woman approached with two kids in a shopping cart. "My kids think you are Santa Claus," she said sheepishly. I came back with, "You're in luck, I am Santa Claus." I conducted a Santa interview with her children right there in the middle of Wal-Mart Mind you, I was not even wearing red at the time.

A few days later I was with my good buddy, John McAtee. He took me out to eat at Cafe Rio in Orem. when we were about to leave, I noticed two wide-eyed moppets, a brother and sister, standing at our table staring up at me. The boy spoke up and asked, "Santa Claus?" Answering, I responded, "Yes, I am Santa Claus!" His reply to that was an awestruck, "Whoa!" A couple of seconds later the two were joined buy an even younger brother. I could tell the parents were really embarrassed, but I assured them it was just fine and not to worry. This time, though I was dressed in black, and in the middle of Cafe Rio, I conducted yet another impromptu Santa visit. Go figure.

My generous cousin, Dwight Muse and his wife Teresa put me up in their home while I was in Utah. One night for family Home Evening, all of their kids and grandkids who live in close proximity to them came over for dinner. I donned my Mr. Santa garb as part of the festivities, so they could have family Santa photos. It really was a riot with lots of laughs, especially when Dwight found himself in an interesting position with a Christmas goose. It quite literally was a Christmas goose! Their son Stephen's boys, and daughter Danielle's girls are nothing short of adorable.

Dwight and Teresa have been wonderful to me over the years. I am so fortunate to have awesome relatives!

I not only did pictures with my side of the family, I did some with Andrea's side as well. I made a surprise visit to our nephew, Wayne Tomlinson's house. Wayne and Liz's kids, Lexy and Seth were duly impressed not only with having Santa visit their house, but with the Elf on the Shelf gift Andrea and I gave them as well.

Mickey Coombs, a close friend of our niece Korbie, actually hired me to play Santa at their big family party the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Now, with these Utah Santa experiences and the photo session with the Denton's in Mesa, my Santa season was pretty much in full bore.

On that snowy, freezing, hailing, sleeting Sunday before Thanksgiving, we had a family feast at Wayne's place, with a big portion of Sharon Tomlinson's (Andrea's sister) family in attendance. I was stuffed afterwards. We invited our close friends; the Derbidge's to join us for this event because we consider them family. We were close to them down in Glendale. In July, they moved to Salt Lake. It was really, really nice to see them again.

Andrea and I got to do some other fun things during my sojourn in Utah. first, my isiter-in-law, sharon is a member of the Mountain Jubilee Chorus, a Sweet Adelines group. We took Teresa and her mother, Beverly to see Sharon's group in concert in Salt Lake. They are very good, and the concert was enjoyable. A guest group called Noteworthy also performed. They were really amazing.

Another fun thing we did was take our close friends, Joe Paur, my singing partner and best friend, and his wife Janice to dinner. We also invited my good buddy Nathan Watts, who is now attending BYU and was a missionary who lived with us this last year in Glendale the last few months of his mission. This guy had me laughing my a** off for a solid six months. Anyway, he was my favorite amongst the guys who came to stay with us. Not only was he a hell of a lot of fun, he brought a great spirit into our home as well. Plus, he saw me in every state of dress from A to Z and still considers me a friend! That's a real plus! Andrea and I wanted to adopt him, but he was already 21 and his parents might have had something to say about it as well! Meanwhile, back at the restaurant, in the course of conversation, we found out that Nathan's dad, Kevin, and Joe were on the track team together at U of U back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. It really is a small world! Nathan's youngest sister is a big fan of the movie, "Rigoletto", which Joe starred in. Joe signed a DVD of the film for Nathan to give to her.

Well, all good things must come to an end, so did my visit in Utah. I had planned to leave on Tuesday, November 23. However, a huge storm was slated to arrive then and blanket the entire state. In order to beat the storm, I had to leave Monday November 22. Andrea made a hotel reservation for me in Mesquite Nevada for that night. So, on Monday, after lunch with Andrea and our friend, Miles Romney, I quickly packed and was sent on my way by Teresa with a bag of snacks for the road. After filling the sleigh with gas, my first stop was Provo, where I picked up Nathan Watts and his sister, Katherine. I took them to the Salt Lake airport where they were catching a flight to Colorado for Thanksgiving. The drive to Mesquite that night was awfully lonely because I was already missing Mrs. Santa Claus, and Christmas, which is when I will see her again, seemed like an eternity away.

Anyhow, that's how Santa sees it!

The Best of Times; the Worst of Times

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times!

Well, well, well! Another Christmas season is winding down. The years go by so very quickly now, it's almost inconceivable. The holiday season has been a real whirlwind for Santa and the North Pole. First, Mrs. Santa Claus and I are moving our headquarters. In July, she secured a job with a software company in Lindon, Utah. (I know, as if baking cookies and taking care of the elves and reindeer weren't fulfilling enough!) I went without her company nearly four months. When you are married to the love of your life; your soul mate, four months seems an eternity. It was really lonely without her. Things are just better whenever she is around.

When the lady of the house vacated the premises, that left me with the job of facilitating the move. I vacated the premises on September 30. We had lived in our place ten years with the residual ten years accumulation of crap. The move was probably one of the hardest things I have ever had to do physically and emtionally. It was especially difficult because Andrea wasn't there to help make descisions, and give moral support. But that's the way the Christmas cookie crumbles sometimes. I would have never gotten through the move without the angels/elves that helped me. God was very kind in blessing me with these folks: Jack McLaren, Bob DeGoyer, Ziff Nelson, Jannine Hagerty, Bob Hagerty, Brenda French, Ryan White, Wes Byron, Stephen Kohler, Abeal Mendez, Shaun Jury, Marcus Hoskins, Nathan Watts, Anthony Holden, Matthew Knowles, Harry and Deborah Bohnner, Stephen Landis, and Bishop Steve Bills.

I gave away stuff and threw stuff out, but there was still an awful lot left. (Mrs. Santa and I have both agreed that we have to pare all our belongings way down. We don't want to become like the nut jobs on the reality show, "Hoarders", and end up in a sea of crap that we have collected.) Anyway, the moving van arrived at 10:00 a.m. September 30, and didn't leave 'til 9:45 p.m. Yikes! Like I said, we have a lot to pare down. We filled the entire moving van. I am so glad that is over. I never want to go through that kind of move ever again!

My very generous cousin, Donna Ellsworth, and her equally generous husband, David Ellsworth, opened their home to me after the move so that I could work at the costume shop in October and fulfill my Santa contracts during this holiday season. I can never repay them for this over the top generousity. I will be heading on up to Utah on Christmas Day, leaving the Ellsworth home behind, as well as a life time in Los Angeles.

On October 1, the day after the move, I went to work for my good buddy, Tim Dietlein, owner of Glendale Costumes. Tim is definitely one of the good guys, and has been a wonderful friend throughout the years. In fact, one of my favorite things every holiday season is doing a family Santa photo session with Tim, Brenda, and the kids.

It was great working with old friends again at the shop like Mario, Angela, Lisa, Salette, Jason, Amanda, Clayton, Jessica, and Mark. Also, I have become really good friends with some of the repeat customer base who are sure to always show up: My good buddy, and great character actor, Dan Roebuck; producder, Jane Sansom; designer, Anne Clossfarley; and "The Closer" cast member, Corey Reynolds.

And so, Halloween, and the big move came and went, and all in all, Santa survived. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Anyhow, that's how Santa sees it!

Last of the Great Story Tellers

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.--William Wordsworth

I got word that my good Santa buddy, Jim Lewis, passed away in Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles on Sunday August 15 . He was in total heart failure. There was little they could do short of keeping him permanently on life support. This indeed is sad news. I met Jim some 16 years ago on the Universal Studios back lot. He and I and eight other Santas were there to shoot a commercial for a German catalog company called Otto Versant. (I was told Otto is the German equivalent of Sears. After looking at the catalog, I'd say that was pretty accurate.) Actually, I met Jim weeks before at the audition for the commercial. I had a great conversation with him while we changing into our Santa suits. He was totally gregarious and treated me like we were old friends. It was almost as if you were compelled to like Jim. He had a personality as big as all outdoors that literally picked you up and carried you into his prodigious circle of friends.

It was on this commercial shoot that Jim and a couple of the other guys put their heads together and decided it would be fun to start a Santa fraternity called the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas. The idea was that we'd all meet up once a year after the holiday season and get caught up and swap stories. And, that's just what we did. It was always great fun. Our numbers grew each year, and now there are hundreds. It was terrific to always pick up where we'd left off the previous year. I always looked for Jim at these functions. I never wanted to miss getting caught up with him. The last time I saw Jim was 20 January of '08, at the annual Santas reuinion. (The picture I posted of Jim and I is from that event, and part of a larger photo that appeared in the Los Angeles Times. The other pics are from the Otto shoot.)


Not only was Jim a top-of-the-line Santa, appearing as Nordstrom's Santa at South Coast Plaza for 25 years, he was also a master professional storyteller. He created an original script and a persona, Grandpa Jim, which he employed as a means telling stories of pioneers on the Oregon Trail at a myriad of venues including camps, work shops, schools, conventions, etc. In this facet of his career, he told countless stories as he appeared before thousands of eager listeners. As a member of the South Coast Storytellers Guild, Jim generously shared his know-how and talent with other storytellers, and wanna' be story tellers. He most recently trotted out Grandpa Jim for an educational company called Dream Shapers who create educational programs for schools.

Jim was a fighter and survivor of prostate cancer. In fact he won two bouts with the malady; refusing chemo treatments through the ordeal because he did not want to lose one his best physical attributes, his wonderful snow white Santa beard. You gotta' love a guy like that.

(Thanks to Santa Tim for providing Jim's particulars)

Santa Jim Lewis, you are loved and you most certainly are going to be missed. While we are saddened by bidding you adieu, we know there are others joyously awaiting a reunion with you on the other side. I'm sure you'll be put to work right away brightening the lives of others there. Farewell for now my dear friend. I shall miss you, but will think of you fondly and often. Vaya con Dios, Santa Joe.

Anyhow, that's how Santa sees it!

Tribute to Dan Fogelberg

"There is no darkness in this place that we're bound. Love is the only thing that matters."--Dan Fogelberg-Icarus Ascending

Dan Fogelberg was born 59 years ago today in Peoria, Illinois. Sadly, he passed away of prostate cancer at the relatively young age of 56 on 16 December 2007.

Fogelberg’s music is timeless and unforgettable with a broad appeal. His lyric tenor voice had a wonderful comfortable down-home quality that invited the listener to basically come in be a part of his life.

A consummate gifted musical genius; a composer, arranger, vocalist, guitarist, pianist, and bass and mandolin player; he seemed unassuming and humble and grateful where his talent is concerned. Unlike many of the big-fish-in-a-little-pond pseudo geniuses with big egos. Dan Fogelberg was world class, the cream of the crop, one of a kind, and definitely had “it”. In his career, he produced one triple platinum, 4 double platinum, 3 platinum, and two gold albums. Thankfully he didn’t die with his music still in him. What a gift he gave to the world.

Some of my favorite songs of his include; Illinois, Souvenirs, As the Raven Flies, Leader of the Band, Same Old Lang Syne, Longer, Part of the Plan, and Dance with Me.

His last album with eleven songs, was released posthumously in 2009, and is titled, “Love in Time”. It is marvelous, and clear he had never lost his touch. My favorite gems from this album include; Come to the Harbor, A Growing Time, Diamonds to Dust, and

Sometimes a Song. (In fact Sometimes a Song was sold on the Internet as a single before the album’s release, with the proceeds going to the Prostate Cancer Foundation.) His rendition of Birds on this album definitely gives Neil Young a run for his money.

Since I am Santa Claus, I am always on the look-out for great holiday music. In the mid 90’s, Dan released a Christmas album, “The First Christmas Morning.”. It is absolutely superb. He put all of his creative juices to work on this one. His brilliant mix of old and new is incredible, and has an appeal for all musical tastes. He makes old Christmas standards come to life again, as well as original instrumentals and vocal compositions which include his At Christmas Time, The First Christmas Morning, This Endris Night, and Christ the King. If you don’t have this album in your collection of holiday CD’s, get it! It will make your holiday season!

When Dan Fogelberg passed away in December of 2007, he left behind a great legacy of music and humanitarianism that few will equal. I never got a chance to go to one of his live concerts, or meet him in person, but I sure would have loved to. I hope I do get to meet him at some future date and express my appreciation for the gift of his work and its effect on my life.

Anyhow, that’s how Santa sees it!