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The Way We Work Now
I’m a Mall Santa Trying to Capture the Christmas Spirit Over Zoom
The Way We Work Now is a series chronicling how people’s lives and careers have fundamentally changed because of the pandemic.
Ed Taylor is a 66-year-old Santa Claus impersonator living in Hollywood, California. He spoke to Mai Tran about how he’s used Zoom to meet with families remotely during the holiday season.
I wear two hats: one as a Santa Claus portrayal artist, and the other as the founder of an organization called the Worldwide Santa Claus Network, which has about 3,400 members around the world. I’ve worked in some malls, but mostly I do home and company parties, as well as tree-lighting ceremonies. Now I’m doing 100% virtual meetings. I had about 160 already booked ahead of Thanksgiving. I’m sure I’ll probably do 300 or more in total, and I love it.
In early spring, we saw the writing on the wall and made a pivot from our normal training, which focused on being Santa in malls, home parties, community events, and parades. We shifted to virtual visits. One of the guys jumped on with his background animated—a fire was going in the fireplace, and it was snowing out his windows—and all our jaws dropped. We found out he was using a green screen. In short order, we wound up buying lights, green screens, all this stuff.
We’ve had hundreds of Santas around the world who have embraced this and learned a whole new skill set, not only with the technology, but also with the huge difference in interaction. If you’re a Santa in a mall, a typical interaction with a child is maybe a minute or two. The focus is primarily asking the child what they want for Christmas, getting a great photo — not much beyond that, especially if you’re in one of the busy malls. The virtual visits tend to run eight minutes or longer. All of a sudden we had to learn a lot about having conversations with youngsters and how to keep them engaged and interested. It’s…
