It’s a well-worn trope of sitcoms and cartoons–schlubby guy desperate for holiday cash, often very late in the season, resorts to taking a job playing Santa Claus at a department store or mall, and hilarity is intended to ensue.
But obviously it can’t be that easy. I imagine these guys are tapped months in advance and they have to go through a talent agency or something. They probably have to show that they have a lot of experience playing Santa in lesser venues, and once they hit the big time they’re likely to have dibs on the gig for years down the line.
I’d say something must’ve happened around 2000. I used to get jobs at Christmas wrapping for instance, and they were great ways to earn extra bucks. Stores would accomodate you, like I’d say I can get here at 6pm and they’d work around me to get extra stuff done.
Then in 2000 I went to Marshall Fields (I had worked there before) and all of a sudden, I had to have a reference check, a background check, take a drug test, and go to 2 days of company training. I went to a couple of other places and they had similar things, just to do Christmas work. All of them required at least one day of orientation, for which I’d have to take a vacation day from my other job and I had to give a reference which I never did before.
So the stores in Chicago at least, started getting stricter around then. And if I was just doing stuff like wrapping gifts and cleaning up, I reckon to be Santa would be a lot tougher.
It can’t be that hard; my chronically underemployed FIL did it once or twice. He hasn’t got any sort of criminal record or anything, he just usually needs a job.
Some years ago I received an email from (large department store) looking for a Santa Claus. It was fairly detailed, giving the required hours and rate of pay. They supplied the Santa suit and some brief training.
It was sent to the Morris Men contact list - I’m not sure why they thought the Morris Men would be a good place to find a Santa, but there you go.
No, I didn’t follow it up, but I do the Santa thing at the office Christmas party. That doesn’t require any background check, but no-one sits in my lap anyway.
Given that Santa pretty much works surrounded by thousands of parents paying strict attention to their child, it doesn’t seem like a job that would demand background checks and fingerprinting.
About five years ago, I took my grandchildren to visit a Santa in a mall and one of the elves offered me a job on the spot (portly with a white beard). I don’t know what would have been involved since I wasn’t interested. Here in Montreal you have to be bilingual, which lets me out.
Believe me, all it takes is one inappropriate touch while on Santa’s knee to bankrupt a department store fighting lawsuits. No store manager worth having the job is going to allow a non-checked person to sit toddlers on his knee all day.
Hell, when I worked as a freaking CLERK at our county Children & Youth agency, I had to be child-welfared! I never even came in contact with any kids in the course of my job.
