\u2018Spike Jones is just so cheesy!\u2019<\/p>\n
I know I look the part. I wear the green Santa outfit from before Coca-Cola turned him red and white to match their branding, but if I just put a Christmas hat on, people shout \u201cOi Santa!\u201d at me. Someone said I look more like a fat elf, which is fair enough. I\u2019ve had lots of funny incidents. I once felt a tug on my beard, looked down and there was a two-year-old dangling from it. I do Santa for the domestic abuse charity IDAS<\/a>, distributing donated presents to child survivors. My favourite song is obvious: Do They Know It\u2019s Christmas?<\/a>, because Band Aid drew attention to global inequality. The song that drives me nuts is [Spike Jones\u2019s 1948 hit] All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth. It\u2019s just so cheesy. Really irritating! Arnold Warneken AKA Green Santa<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019d rather hear a grime Christmas song\u2019\u2018I wasn\u2019t sure how the kids would process a Black Santa\u2019: Cleve Freckleton AKA Rasta Claus<\/p>\n I was teaching at a school for kids with special educational needs and they asked me to be Santa. I wasn\u2019t sure how the kids would process a Black Santa, so I made up this jokey character, Rasta Claus. The parents loved it \u2013 their children are classed as \u201cdifferent\u201d so it made sense for them to have a \u201cdifferent\u201d Santa. One kid once said, \u201cYou\u2019re not the real Santa\u201d, so I said I was Santa\u2019s cousin and worked for him. He believed we were related because we both have white beards \u2013 he didn\u2019t see skin colour. I love how children think. My favourite festive songs are Baby It\u2019s Cold Outside<\/a>, Winter Wonderland<\/a> and When a Child Is Born<\/a>. None of them mention Christmas but they couldn\u2019t be more Christmassy. I\u2019d rather hear something different than hear Mariah Carey for the 1,000th time \u2013 maybe a grime Christmas song or a punk version of Silent Night. Cleve Freckleton AKA Rasta Claus<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018I don\u2019t like When Santa Got Stuck Up the Chimney for obvious reasons!\u2019<\/p>\n For me, Santa is the Christmas spirit. Families \u2013 especially with kids \u2013 are in awe, and you can feel the magic. It gets very hot in the costume, wig and beard. For the first hour you feel really uncomfortable, then your body starts to adjust. It\u2019s always a challenge to go to the loo in costume. Kids always want to tell you what they want for Christmas, although you get some funny requests. A four-year-old girl told me she wanted a reindeer. My favourite song is Underneath the Tree by Kelly Clarkson<\/a>, because we did a choreographed dance to it in a Santa show and all the families joined in. The one I can\u2019t bear is When Santa Got Stuck Up the Chimney for obvious reasons but I make a joke of it. I say, \u201cIt only happened once!\u201d Joseph Ridgely<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018Christmas Wrapping drives me bananas \u2013 though it\u2019s a total earworm\u2019\u2018On Boxing Day I have to get a beard trim, otherwise I can\u2019t get rid of him\u2019: Keith Leech. Photograph: Santa\u2019s Calling You<\/p>\n I used to be a science teacher but one day my daughter said: \u201cDad, your beard\u2019s gone white. You could play Father Christmas.\u201d As soon as I put the outfit on I feel warm and fluffy inside. If kids go, \u201cIs that beard real?\u201d I tug on it and say: \u201cIt feels real to me.\u201d On Boxing Day I have to get a beard trim, otherwise I can\u2019t get rid of him. My favourite song is Jingle Bells, believe it or not, because like Santa it\u2019s very jolly and Christmassy. The songs that drive me nuts are things I\u2019ve heard too much, like [Slade\u2019s] Noddy Holder shouting: \u201cIt\u2019s Chriiiiiistmmmmassss!\u201d Christmas Wrapping by the Waitresses<\/a> drives me bananas \u2013 the singing leaves a lot to be desired, although I have to admit the riff is a total earworm. Keith Leech<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018Stop the Cavalry is a heartfelt plea to stop all war\u2019<\/p>\n My favourite Christmas song is Jona Lewie\u2019s Stop the Cavalry<\/a> because it\u2019s bouncy, has that wonderful brass section middle bit and is just a heartfelt plea to stop all war. I don\u2019t like Nat King Cole\u2019s The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forgot<\/a> because it\u2019s just so sad \u2013 the boy hasn\u2019t got any parents, so he gets nothing at Christmas. Being Santa can be heartbreaking \u2013 I\u2019ve had a child say to me: \u201cI only get one present but my friend gets 30. Does that mean I\u2019m naughty?\u201d \u2013 but it\u2019s almost like a calling. I went to see a little boy in hospital who\u2019d been in a terrible accident. When we got talking, the room fell silent and people started crying. Afterwards I was virtually rugby tackled by his mum and dad, who said: \u201cThat\u2019s the first time he\u2019s spoken for six months.\u201d That\u2019s the power of Santa. Nigel Harvey AKA Santa Himself<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018You grin and bear Donny Osmond for the love of Christmas\u2019 I\u2019ve got a beard and wear braces. One day I was in a shop and someone shouted: \u201cOi Santa!\u201d A couple of days later two blokes on bikes shouted the same thing. I thought: there must be something in this. So I became Santa. I must be convincing because a grandfather came up and said: \u201cThank you for the guitar you gave me when I was 12.\u201d I love Doctor Who and am pretty sure that Santa is a Time Lord: lots of faces and the ability to charge around different places at different times. I\u2019m a classical music buff so I\u2019m very partial to Prokofiev\u2019s Sleigh Ride. It was part of the trade test music when BBC Two was launched and I just loved listening to it there. If you hear any of them too often they drive you nuts. As a child I found Donny Osmond\u2019s Christmas songs particularly distressing, but you grin and bear it for the love of Christmas. Simon Anthony<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018A guinea pig dived into my beard\u2019 My father was a Santa and my wife got me into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[458,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-163944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\u2018If](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/180.jpg\")
\u2018If you hear any of them too often they drive you nuts\u2019: Simon Anthony. Photograph: Santa\u2019s Calling You<\/p>\n