(WARNING: This article contains behind-the-scenes information about a performer playing Santa Claus, and is not meant for young readers.)
TAMPA BAY, Fla. — For Nick Cardello, the journey to the North Pole began five years ago, during a trip to Universal Studios.
“I let my beard grow out, and it started getting whiter,” he says. “The kids in the gift shop were going up to their parents and tugging on them, saying, ‘Is that him? Is that really him? Is that Santa Claus?’ I got a chuckle out of that, and I thought, ‘Well, if I’m going to look like Santa Claus, I better learn how to be like Santa Claus for real.”
What You Need To Know
- Nick Cardello has been transforming into Santa Claus for the last five years
- He attended Santa school to make sure he got all the details right
- "Santa Nick" is doing virtual visits with children during the COVID-19 pandemic
Cardello, a professional photographer in Tampa, isn’t one to go into anything halfway. After doing some research, he enrolled in Midland, Michigan’s Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School. It’s the oldest Santa school in the world, established in 1937 when Howard, the original Macy’s department store Santa, grew tired of watching other retail St. Nicks apply what he considered a less-than-committed work ethic to the job.
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At school, Cardello was treated to a deep dive into the details and minutiae of creating a realistic, knowledgeable and reverent Santa, from hair whitening, wardrobe and the proper ho-ho-ho belly laugh to the history, legends and lore behind Kris Kringle. Not long after graduating, he made his first transformation into Father Christmas for his family.
“Once I did that, I was hooked,” he says.
Since that first gig, Cardello has enjoyed a thriving second job that not only brings in some income, but also allows him to connect with and bring joy to children throughout the Tampa Bay area and beyond.
“I think that every Santa, once they start doing this, it becomes a calling,” he says. “It’s a great way to reach out to children in need, it’s just such a great opportunity.”
He’s attended two more Santa schools, and been inducted into the International Brotherhood of Real Bearded Santas, Florida’s own Palm Tree Santas, and The Santa Claus Conservatory. He’s done hospital visits and home visits and corporate events where professional adults get to feel like kids again. Most of his work still comes from word of mouth, his website and social media, but not all of it—he once even traveled to China to spread Christmas tidings over the holidays.
“I have an agent,” he says, a hint of disbelief at the idea still in his voice. “He had a Santa in China, and the one from the year before couldn’t go back, so I spent the season there. They asked me to go back last year, but with all the complications of traveling to China, I decided not to go.”
He also passed on an opportunity to travel to Hawaii this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The coronavirus has forced a massive change in the way “Santa Nick” engages with kids this year. The in-house appearances—and, in all likelihood, most in-person gigs in general—are gone, replaced by Zoom calls and videoconferencing.
“I was all set up for in-person visits, and in March we realized that this wasn’t going to be cleared up by Christmas,” says Cadello. “There’s a worldwide Santa network that does online education, typically about 200 Santas get on a call together, so we’ve been networking, we’ve all been installing home studios, video equipment. I can’t tell you the outlay of capital in upgrading laptops, studio lighting, video cameras, everything.”
While he misses the fun and personal touches that face-to-face meetings bring, he says that virtual visits come with their own unique positive aspects, as well.
“I can be at the North Pole, I can be anywhere,” he says, referring to the options he has with digital backdrops and computer-generated visuals. “I can say ‘look at the Aurora Borealis outside my window, I can pull up Santa’s workshop. It’s really exciting, because it forced us to step outside our comfort zone, learn a new technology and it’s enabling us to reach far more children than we could on our own.”
Plus, he adds, “The children are doing a lot of learning from home and so they’re used to the technology, they’re not afraid of the technology. They probably know how to use Zoom and the video calls better than their parents.”
While one in-home visit might eat up half a day with travel time, Santa Nick can thrill more than a dozen children in the same span. And while the kids might not get that expensive photo sitting on Santa’s lap, they get a recording of the video visit, and can make stills from it. They also get something much more important than a physical memento: time.
“[Photo-ops at the mall] are so rushed,” says Cardello. “They might get 30 seconds, a minute, two minutes at most.”
With video visits, he’s able to actually take the time to connect with the children, and get to know them a bit. It’s the whole reason he took the time to go to Santa school, to have (wildly expensive) custom costumes made, to nail all the details. The whole purpose, for Santa Nick, is to give a child an unforgettable holiday experience.
“It's very, very challenging to make sure you get it right, because it’s a huge responsibility to be Santa Claus,” he says. “So you want to invest the time and the money to make sure that you’re authentic, that you’re the real deal, and the child doesn’t walk away saying, ‘Who’s that guy portraying Santa?’ You want them to say they met Santa Claus.”