SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Christmas is around the corner, so you can bet that Santa has been busy. And while he is preparing his sleigh to deliver presents all over the world with a team of flying reindeer, other people have been acting as his stand-ins. You've seen them bringing a cheer to your local mall or holiday market. From member station KUNC, In The NoCo host Erin O'Toole introduces us to one woman who teaches people how to fill jolly, old Saint Nicholas' big, shiny shoes.
ERIN O'TOOLE, BYLINE: As it turns out, being Santa is a teachable skill.
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O'TOOLE: Susen Mesco founded Professional Santa Claus School in Denver in 1983. And that means she has four decades of expertise in getting your local Santa acting and looking his best.
SUSEN MESCO: When my Santas do their beard, the beard has to be conditioned. It has to be whitened. It has to be curled. It has to be sprayed. It has to be glittered. It makes them more magical.
O'TOOLE: Susen got her start when her event planning business got an offer to train and manage some Santas at local malls. And she saw a lot of room for improvement.
MESCO: I said, how hard could this be? And so I went around spying on my competitor. And what I actually found was everything not to do. Mommies were miserable. Children were being forced at Santa. Santa was cranky and slouchy, and his beard was falling off. So I went to work writing kind of a manual on - we want to be jolly, we want to smile, we want to interact. And it evolved over the years.
O'TOOLE: Since then, she said she's trained 5,000 Santas. Susen talked with me about what makes a great Santa, what keeps her business thriving and how she helps her students embrace the role of Santa.
MESCO: Well, it starts really with the basics, so that they understand the children - that a 3-year-old needs something very different than a 6-year-old would need...
O'TOOLE: Sure.
MESCO: ...How to do their makeup so that their faces look like storybook Santas, how to adjust their pillows so they don't look like they just took a pillow off of their bed and shoved it in...
O'TOOLE: (Laughter).
MESCO: ...How to work with hesitant children so children are never forced. There's a formula for how to answer any impossible question. So it starts with the basics of being Santa, how to think like Santa, how to dress like Santa, activities that Santa would do at the North Pole. So working with the Santas to really introduce them so that they're not just the guy down the street that threw on a Party City Santa suit.
O'TOOLE: Right. And I know one of the classes you offer is called a Santa mindset class. What do you do in this class, and why do your Santas need this training?
MESCO: Think about Santa when he's got to be in that chair for somewhere between two, four, six, eight hours. For him to remain in that character for the 287th child that comes in...
O'TOOLE: Yeah.
MESCO: ...That asks him a question, what Santa needs to do is stay in character so that he can have fun. So there's lots of little things that the Santas need to do. And it's easier to start thinking like Santa. So I make them go through, what do they do each day? - when they get up in the morning, and then they go check the reindeer, and then they have to have a meeting, you know, with the elf department and check on the toy inventory and really start thinking this three-dimensional life that Santa has.
O'TOOLE: OK.
MESCO: So that is a five-hour class that I teach.
O'TOOLE: Wow. So your Santas have a backstory and a morning routine as Santa. Kids these days grow up in a difficult world. They might be on Santa's lap and bring up concerns about guns or natural disasters. How do you prepare your Santas for those kinds of questions?
MESCO: Children are so exposed to so much media, and there's so much information that comes at them. Then those children actually bring their heartfelt concerns to Santa. Sometimes it seems like nobody will listen, and so they will come to Santa with questions like, I'm being bullied, or I'm afraid to go to school, or I saw my friend had a gun, or three of my friends got killed...
O'TOOLE: Right.
MESCO: ...Or my house got burned down by the fire in Louisville. These are things that are so real that children are participating in today...
O'TOOLE: Yeah.
MESCO: ...That Santa really needs to know how to respond, to be sensitive to without going over the top because in a Santa visit of 2 1/2 minutes, we cannot do three months' worth of therapy.
O'TOOLE: Right.
MESCO: So we have to realize that we are one step along the way. So it's a lot more complicated to be a quality Santa in today's day and age than it used to be.
O'TOOLE: I know they only have limited time with the children. How does a Santa respond to a kid who raises a sensitive issue?
MESCO: Well, first, they have to listen. And then they have to validate that child's feelings. So no matter what they're feeling, if they're feeling afraid, if they're feeling mad, if they're feeling sad, angry, whatever that feeling is that the child has, Santa validates that. And then Santa says, I remember a time when I felt that way. So let's say Grandma has died. You know, we're going to talk about, oh, your grandma was so wonderful. I know that you miss her. I miss my grandma, too. What was your favorite thing about your grandma? Her cookies, or I got to go in the garden with her, or she sewed my Halloween costume, or she used to read to me, or she gave me good hugs. And then remembering and talking about, well, you know, that's what we want to remember about grandma - and then we usually have the Santas say - you know, because the child wants Grandma to come back from heaven. So Santa goes, well, I can't bring Grandma back from heaven. But sometimes when I'm with my special team of reindeer, we fly really, really high.
O'TOOLE: Aw.
MESCO: And sometimes we go to heaven. So could you whisper in my ear what you would like Santa to tell your grandmother? And then they'll tell Santa. And they'll say, would you like me to give your grandma one of your magic hugs? So they'll give Santa a hug that he's going to take up to Grandma. And so we've - we haven't fixed it. Grandma's still dead, sadly, but the child now feels heard, feels compassion and feels a little more soothed.
O'TOOLE: That just brought tears to my eyes, Susen. After four decades of teaching Santa school, what is it that makes someone a great Santa Claus?
MESCO: I say this all the time. I don't buy beards, belts, buckles, boots. You can put the most expensive outfit on someone who's just in it for the money or someone who's in it for the ego or the glory...
O'TOOLE: Yeah.
MESCO: And we don't talk about Santa suits really until about five, six months into it. So I think what makes a great Santa is their heart, their commitment and not just their love of children, but we work with a lot of memory care units and seniors and just making sure that every single person gets to experience the Santa that they need through the love that can shine through Santa's heart.
O'TOOLE: Susen Mesco, founder of Professional Santa Claus School in Denver, thank you so much for speaking with me.
MESCO: Thank you, Erin. And we did check - you are on the nice list.
O'TOOLE: Thank goodness. I didn't want to ask, but thank you.
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DETROW: That was host Erin O'Toole with the podcast In The NoCo from member station KUNC. The episode was produced by Ariel Lavery and edited by Brad Turner. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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