Mall Santa:

Mayfair Mall

We might only see him during a few weeks of the year, but being Santa Claus is a year-round job.

Why, just the other day the jolly old fellow was having lunch and someone tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up and didn’t see anyone. Then he looked down and spotted a little tyke looking very repentant. “I didn’t have a very good day, but I’ll try to be better tomorrow,” he promised.

“It’s a very rewarding job that I do,” Santa says. “It just doesn’t go on at Christmas time.”

Lest you doubt the authenticity of this Kris Kringle, just ask for his business card: Santa Claus, North Pole, Arctic Circle. “If you’re gonna do it, you’ve gotta live it,” he says, “because it shows if you don’t.”

The day we talked to him via telephone we could almost see the twinkle in his eye from the heartwarming stories he told.

“The joy you see in the kids’ eyes when you talk to them is indescribable,” he says.

There are some tear-jerkers and some chuckles every day he sits on the throne at mall center court. One day he said to a little visitor, “Where have you been? I have been waiting for you all morning.” To which to the tot replied: “It takes my mother all morning to get dressed.”

Then there was the kid whose mom whispered to Santa that he doesn’t believe anymore. “He will when he leaves here,” Santa promised.

After the requisite picture with his two little sisters, Santa says he and the boy got to talking. He told him that he checks to make sure all the kids are sleeping before he leaves the goodies, and last year he stumbled over toys in this boy’s room. “Clean it up,” Santa told the boy. “And stop picking on your sisters.”

Let’s just say, the mother was very pleased.