Ten years ago, the Billings Bridge Santa remembers a man coming in with his daughter who had just arrived from Poland and didn’t speak English. The only Polish Santa could think of was “moja droga jacie kocham,” which means, “I love you so.”
That was enough to convince the little girl that he was the real Santa, and she returned the following year just to see him.
For the past 21 years, Santa has been spending his free time away from the North Pole talking to children and their families at Billings Bridge Mall.
Many children in the area have grown up with the tradition of visiting Santa every year, and even though they are a year older, Santa, incredibly, is still the same man.
Since he has played such a large role in some families’ traditions, it was not surprising that he has many special moments to share.
“Yeah, there are all sorts of them,” he said with a smile. “A couple of years ago a woman came in [with her son and daughter] and said, ‘Well this is it, Santa. This will be the last year we’re visiting . . . because this became a family tradition for us over the last 10 years, we want to share it with you now.’”
They had copied all of the pictures of the kids with Santa, put them in a book and gave it to him as a memoire.
To Santa, spending time at his “extended office” in Billings is about fostering children’s wonder and making Santa Claus a believable persona.
“It depends on why you’re doing it,” he said. “If it’s because it’s going to pay you $10, $12, $15 dollars an hour, then you’re going to get a $10-, $12-, $15-dollar-an-hour Santa. If you’re doing it because you want to make the image of Santa credible, then you’ll put a little more into it.”
When it comes to effort, this Santa goes well beyond what is expected.
Some of his effort goes toward making sure he can communicate with each child in some way. This is quite a challenge considering how many languages there are in the world. Fluently bilingual in French, Santa can also say “Merry Christmas” in 16 different languages.
With so many visitors, Santa is bound to hear some outrageous gift requests.
“I’ve had a mother and daughter come up and see me, a week before Christmas,” he said. “The daughter gives me her list and the mother sits down on my knee and says ‘Can you get my husband out of prison for just one day so he can come and have Christmas with us?’”
In the simple act of listening to a child’s wishes, offering a hug, or giving small gifts like a snow globe, Santa brings hope and good cheer to those who need it.
At Christmas time, exam time, or any other time he said, “Shake [the snow globe] when you feel the world is falling all around you and you’ll realize, it’s only snow.”