What do you want for Christmas? It’s not the question Santa Claus will typically start with when a child gets deposited on his knee, but the conversation usually gets around to it. Last Saturday, a group who professionally embody the figure compared notes on the negotiations that followed this past season. Santa doesn’t say no, but he can resort to trickery. Want an iPhone? Sorry, the age limit for one of those is 16 in Australia, and Santa has to follow international law. Want a drone? Sure thing, but what would you want with a male bee? “They’ll just stare at me blankly,” said the Santa with that strategy. The most common hurdle: pets. “They scare the reindeer” is the boilerplate answer for the Pikes Peak chapter of the International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas. It doesn’t always work, as one Santa relayed. He said one child’s counter was, “But you brought one for Sally last year.” Santa Ken Toal, left shares a laugh with Santa Brett Maddox, during their monthly Santa meeting at Grace Lutheran Church in Colorado Springs on Saturday, January 17, 2026. (The Gazette, Michael G. Seamans) The IBRBS no longer requires real beards, though most of the chapter members gathered in the basement of Grace Lutheran Church in Colorado Springs met and exceeded the rule. It’s also no longer a brotherhood: present were a few Mmes. Claus. The gathering had a clandestine feel, since it broke one of the fundamentals of the trade. As a professional courtesy, two Santas should not be seen together in public, explained Chapter President William McPherson. “We’ll start feeding off each other,” he said. The observation held true for the meeting in Grace Lutheran’s basement, which could have doubled as a jolliness competition. Beards came curled and brushed; the dress code was casual but very red. An occasional Christmas-themed ringtone or text alert sounded. Santa Mac leads a discussion on how to handle certain circumstances while dealing with parents and children in public settings during their monthly Santa meeting at Grace Lutheran Church in Colorado Springs on Saturday, January 17, 2026. (The Gazette, Michael G. Seamans) Different Santas have different ways of summoning the spirit: some are improvisational, some methodically practice mannerisms and situations. Ben Schwenk, a Santa in his second year sitting in “the chair,” said he had learned the most infectious version of the Santa laugh. It’s more of a “chuckle ho chuckle” than a “ho ho ho,” building from an amused rumbling to full-on belly-holding. The lead-up is the trick, he said. One of the more extemporaneous Santas is Joe Monaco, who has gone by Santa Joe for decades. He describes performing crowd work on a waiting line of squirming children with a comic’s observational skills. Kids gripping parents’ shirts or hugging knees need a more subtle approach, and Monaco’s home-built set up lets children play with props before a more organic encounter with the man himself. Santa Joe’s not all trade tricks: Monaco considers the role that has occupied so much of his life a near-spiritual calling. After growing up in an abusive household, he said he struggled with alcoholism and is now 30 years sober. Before donning the red suit, he managed a sober living house and volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. “I never got to be a kid,” he said. “I get to be a kid today.” Being Santa can take a physical and mental toll. At 73, Monaco says he pushes through 8,000 interactions as Santa in a single month. Children are heavy, and repetitive motion injuries are not outside the realm of possibility. McPherson said he’d heard of a Santa acquiring a hernia. Santa Claus award seasonSanta Joe is among the 2025 inductees to the International Santa Claus Hall of Fame in Santa Claus, Indiana. He will be joining a hall of fame that includes people like Edmund Gwenn, whose role in 1947’s Miracle on 34th Street won an Oscar, Idella Holzhauer, an Ohio woman who played Santa for three decades, and Richard Brookins, a WWII corporal whose wartime generosity inspired a St. Nicolas Day tradition in Wiltz, Luxembourg. He is the third Colorado inductee, after Thomas Carmody of Broomfield and Lynn Royse of Boulder. Some Santas also expressed frustration with parents, venues and photography companies. One complaint elicited universal grumbling: people purposefully staging a “crying child” picture with Santa. Most said they had an experience this year with a laughing parent handing over their screaming offspring. They didn’t find it funny. “Santa doesn’t cause trauma to children,” Schwenk said. Most of the Santas still had plenty of cheer left over. As frustrating and taxing as the December scramble can get, most are in it for more than money. Some debuted the role first for family or friends when the Santa look naturally started developing, then found the job more fulfilling than expected. Ken Markus, a Santa with an 11-year tenure, said he thought of the suit more like a uniform than a costume. When he isn’t acting in a Red Herring Productions murder mystery, he said people tend to associate him with the role. “I’ve been told I have a Santa vibe,” he said. Schwenk said that his outlook on the holiday season flipped once he started portraying Santa. He once worked in a very different role that picks up around Christmas time: mall cop. One too many parking lot disputes made him bitter. “I absolutely hated Christmas at one point in my life,” he said. Now, his preparation takes four hours. During a working day, he’ll eat lunch through a straw to preserve the beard. Mark Crane, who just started as Santa, said he had “a blast” at tree lightings, home visits and department stores. “You just can’t beat the joy,” he said. ...read more read less