High demand for Santas leads to Christmas crisis

Little Rock, Arkansas – If you are in the market to book Santa for a holiday event or party this year, chances are you have had a hard time hiring him.

Many individuals are stating we are in a Santa scarcity.

Blake Woodson, a Santa from Cabot, said he agreed.

Woodson has dressed up as Santa for roughly five years now.

He stated he generally restricts himself to 25 Santa appearances throughout the year, but this year he has already hit over 30 appearances.

Woodson claimed he sometimes may go to four separate parties or homes in a single night.

If he is already booked, he will send the individual trying to book Santa to another acquaintance who plays the part. But a lot of times, that Santa is already booked.

“I have turned away probably 12 people that we could not fit into my schedule,” said Woodson. “Last year I started referring some of the ones I could not get into another Santa friend of mine and he is at 30 (bookings) and cannot take anymore. I was called yesterday by another Santa and he cannot fit anymore in.”

The reason for this? He claimed more people are wanting real-life Santas: people that have actual beards and happy red cheeks.

But not everyone is fit to be Santa.

Woodson said it takes a particular person to play the part.

“I know several people that have really nice Santa beards, but they do not get along with kids,” Woodson said. “You have to be jolly. You have got to have a personality and you have to be good with kids. There are so many kids that are scared to death of Santa when they see him. They will be excited all day long to go see Santa and when they actually get there and see the Santa, if it is somebody that is kind of scary to them, they will not go to them at all.”