South Florida has Santa shortage during 2025 holiday season

It’s boom time for Santa in South Florida, with requests for visits from St. Nick simulators during public events, office parties and private festivities at an all-time high and the local Claus community struggling to keep up with demand.

Yes, South Florida is running low on Santas.

It’s a nice problem to have if you’re one of the men whose voluminous, natural, white beard allows them to fetch top dollar to play Kris Kringle. Not so much if you need someone to play the jolly ol’ elf at your party.

Jenna McIntosh, principal at St. Anthony Catholic School in downtown Fort Lauderdale, was looking for a Santa for a free community festival on Dec. 18 at the school, with students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. But when she reached out more than a month ago to the Santa she hired last year, she found he was booked, as was another recommended Santa.

McIntosh turned to Instagram and found three candidates, only one available. He texted her his rate: $400 an hour, nearly twice what she paid last year.

“My response, sitting in my office, was literally, ‘Holy [excrement].’ So I talked to my assistant principal and we said, ‘Well, it’s this or no Santa,’ ” McIntosh says. “And we need him there, because Santa represents Christmas, the magic of Christmas. The kids look forward to that. It’s expensive, but it’s worth it.”

Pat Sterling was in a similar predicament when trying to hire a Santa for a recent party at her home in West Boca Raton. The only one she liked who had availability quoted a price of $675 for a two-hour party, about $175 over the top end of her budget. So she gave up.

“Oh, it’s got to be a real beard. The kids are smart, they can tell.” — Pat Sterling, West Boca Raton

Sterling says she did not consider a cheaper option, such as going with a Santa in a fake beard — known as “designer beard Santas.” The best sport faux facial hair that can cost hundreds of dollars.

“Oh, it’s got to be a real beard. The kids are smart, they can tell,” she says.

The shortage is especially complicated this week, in advance of the Super Bowl of Santa Claus appearances on Saturday — the busiest party night of the season, midway between Thanksgiving and Christmas — when a unique accumulation of events in homes, offices, malls and parades has local Kringles wishing they had flying reindeer to get around.

One of South Florida’s most popular Santa Claus actors is Richard Adler, of West Palm Beach, who does 60 to 70 events in a typical season and has worked for Mar-a-Lago, The Breakers, the Miami Dolphins and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.

A job can run all day or as short as 30 minutes, and Adler has performed at events for 1,000 people and also for a single child.

Richard Adler and Camille Terry get ready to play Santa and Mrs. Claus during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony last month at the Promenade at Coconut Creek. (Jim Rassol/Contributor)

He says business continues to be ahead of his usual pace. On Sunday, he began his week with four jobs stretching from Miami-Dade to Palm Beach counties, starting his day at 7:30 a.m. and ending at 11 p.m. Looking ahead, he’s got seven jobs on Christmas Eve, and at least three more on Christmas Day.

This Saturday will set a record: He has 12 requests to appear across three counties.

“I can only be in one place at a time,” says Adler, who was already committed to an all-day job on Saturday at Miami Children’s Hospital and a house visit in Miramar that night. He reached out to his trusted posse of friends in the Santa business to cover the rest, more challenging this year after two of them died recently.

In between, Adler had another unique job offer — a charter flight for a lucrative Christmas event last Wednesday in the Bahamas. Of course, he already had multiple events that day, including a visit to a facility for special-needs kids in Miami. He chose the kids over the Bahamas.

“It is important to me. They expect me. Also being a magician, I can handle those situations. I’ve been in front of those kinds of kids before, and I’m going to be able to entertain them a little bit more than some of these other Santas,” says Adler, 65.

Richard Adler of West Palm Beach plays Santa during a...

Richard Adler of West Palm Beach plays Santa during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the Promenade at Coconut Creek. Adler is a real beard Santa, a prized version of Santa actors who are in short supply this holiday season. Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025 (Jim Rassol/Contributor).

Richard Adler and Camille Terry get ready to play Santa and Mrs. Claus during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the Promenade at Coconut Creek. Adler is a real beard Santa, a prized version of Santa actors who are in short supply this holiday season. Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025 (Jim Rassol/Contributor).

Richard Adler of West Palm Beach, plays Santa during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the Promenade at Coconut Creek. Adler is a real beard Santa, a prized version of Santa actors who are in short supply this holiday season. (Jim Rassol/Contributor).

Richard Adler of West Palm Beach gets ready to play Santa during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the Promenade at Coconut Creek. Adler is a real beard Santa, a prized version of Santa actors who are in short supply this holiday season. Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025 (Jim Rassol/Contributor).

A girl meets Santa, played by Richard Adler of West Palm Beach, during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the Promenade at Coconut Creek on Nov. 22, 2025. Moments like these are “just incredible,” Adler says. (Jim Rassol/Contributor)

Richard Adler and Camille Terry get ready to play Santa and Mrs. Claus during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the Promenade at Coconut Creek, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. Adler is a real-beard Santa, a prized version of Santa actors who are in short supply this holiday season. (Jim Rassol/Contributor)

Richard Adler of West Palm Beach plays Santa during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the Promenade at Coconut Creek, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. Adler is a real-beard Santa, a prized version of Santa actors who are in short supply this holiday season. (Jim Rassol/Contributor)

Fort Lauderdale-based Santa agency All About Entertainment prizes men who bring authentic personality to the job, like Richard Adler. (Jim Rassol/Contributor)

Richard Adler and Camille Terry get ready to play Santa and Mrs. Claus during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony last month at the Promenade at Coconut Creek. (Jim Rassol/Contributor)

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HOW MUCH FOR SANTA?

Fort Lauderdale-based All About Entertainment has been handling parties in the tricounty area for more than 20 years, and provides a Santa (real beards only) for about 50 events between Thanksgiving and Christmas. They happen for a range of clients, from Carnival Cruise Line, Aventura Mall and Town Center at Boca Raton to private home visits on Christmas Eve.

While the company still has some availability this month, the most popular days and times to secure one of their six Santas are long gone, office manager Katrina Young says.

“It has gotten very busy. We have packed schedules, and we do have to turn some clients away,” Young says. “Starting in the fall, we had people booking for next year. [The business] is changing a lot, and it’s changing quick. They want their Santas, and we have some of the best.”

Young says the company has seen increased interest across the board, for everything from city events to corporate gatherings and office parties, as well as from parents trying to “preserve the magic” for their children. She isn’t sure why more people are hiring Santa this year, guessing that general population growth has had an effect.

Adler, who works with All About Entertainment and also arranges gigs for himself and friends, thinks there’s just more money in South Florida now, citing the pockets of Palm Beach and Miami, in particular.

“I knew one guy and his minimum was $850 to go out. Minimum $850. He was worth it. He was a great Santa,” says Adler, pointing out that such a price quote in Miami elicits a shrug. “It’s like, ‘OK, when can you do it?’”

All About Entertainment has not raised prices in a couple of years, Young says, but may consider it if demand continues to rise. Their rates for a 30-minute home visit are $585 for Mondays through Thursdays, $660 for Fridays through Sundays, $775 on Christmas Eve and $930 on Christmas Day.

Corporate rates are for two-hour sessions: $1,170 for Mondays to Thursdays; $1,320 for Fridays to Sundays; $1,550 on Christmas Eve and $2,170 on Christmas Day.

With that kind of money on the table, it may be no surprise that out-of-town Santas have been working in the South Florida market. All About Entertainment has Santas from Wisconsin and Alabama, while Adler is acquainted with a pair from Michigan.

Santas at All About Entertainment must have well-maintained beards and their own premium-quality outfits, with a background check mandatory and certification from a professional organization such as the nonprofit Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School (Midland, Michigan) preferred. Other skills help, such as being able to do magic tricks or sing Christmas carols.

“And you have to have the joy, the love of what you’re doing, because it comes out,” Young says. “They’re performers as well. We don’t want somebody that just sits on the chair and says ‘Merry Christmas.’ You have to have, I don’t know what the word is, the Santa oompf!” [Laughs]
Fort Lauderdale-based Santa agency All About Entertainment prizes men who bring authentic personality to the job, like Richard Adler. (Jim Rassol/Contributor)

A LIFE AS SANTA

Adler is a longtime West Palm Beach entertainer known as the Amazing Mr. A., who works as a magician, ventriloquist and balloon artist until the holiday season heats up. A few days after Halloween, he meets with his crew of fellow Santas for lunch at Golden Corral in Royal Palm Beach to plot out the season.

“This year, we had 12 or 15 guys, all Santas, all showing up at the restaurant at the same time. That’s pretty funny,” Adler says.

The season begins for Adler on Nov. 1 with photo shoots for corporate clients and families getting an early jump on their Christmas cards. Like any good tribute artist, he has about $3,000 worth of outfits and other items to suit different themes, from country Santa to beach Santa. He even has a white sequined outfit that wouldn’t be out of place in Elvis Presley’s closet.

Adler got his start as a fake-beard Santa — he would paint his dark goatee white so it wouldn’t show — who also served as a driver and a magician elf for a group of veteran Santas. At 50, with his wife’s support, he grew his beard out and bleached it to join the ranks of real-beard Santas.

“The old guys, the real-beard Santas, they were really good. They taught me a lot of stuff,” Adler says. “I asked a guy one time, one of my mentors, ‘How do you make a good Santa out of somebody?’ And he said, ‘Just start with a good person.’”

For nearly two months every year, for the past 15 years, Adler has bleached his beard (every two weeks) and traveled all over South Florida, interrupting his own Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, to act as Santa — he calls himself “a becomer.” He says he keeps his prices lower to keep jobs coming in: His hourly rate is $350 in Palm Beach County, $400 in Broward and $500 in Miami-Dade.

Adler says he gets more out of it than just money, especially in these cynical times.

“The look in a kid’s eyes when they come toward you. They believe, and you can make them believe. It’s just incredible,” he says.

Kids being kids, Adler comes prepared for the skeptics, keeping a wallet in his pocket with a driver’s license identifying him as Santa Claus, along with a Bank of the North Pole credit card and a receipt for dry cleaning his robe.

He also carries what he calls a magic wishing coin, for the child who asks Santa for something intangible for Christmas.

“Like, if a kid says, ‘I hope my grandma gets better. I hope my mom and dad get together for Christmas, they’re divorced.’ I bring out the magic wishing coin and we make a wish together,” he says.

Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@sunsentinel.com. Follow on IG: @BenCrandell.

South Florida has Santa shortage during 2025 holiday season

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