It’s a sunny day outside, but inside a hall in Melbourne’s south-east, 50 Santas are listening intently to a once-a-year seminar.
In a few weeks, they will don red and white suits, perfect jolly laughs and reign from velvet thrones at shopping centres across Victoria.
Last Thursday, at Springvale Reserve Hall, there was a sackful of stuff to learn.
Such as how to interact with your elves. How to banter with cheeky teenagers.
What to say if a child asks for a dog for Christmas (answer: handball that query to Mum and Dad).
And the eternal question: how to tame cranky toddlers.
Instructor Bruce Eagle, looking fresh from the North Pole with an affable manner, white beard and glasses, has the room spellbound.
Speak gently, he counsels. Get down to the child’s level. Read a book and invite them to share it. Give them a high five if they brighten up.
He shrugs. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
If anyone is qualified to teach How to Be Santa, it’s Eagle, 75.
He debuted as Santa at Eastland shopping centre, weeks after it opened, in 1967, at age 16, and has played it at shopping centres and events for most Christmas seasons since.
Eagle will be one of four Santas at Eastland this Christmas, from November 7 until December 24.
In 1967, there was no training. Just an interview, a contract and a borrowed Santa suit.
Eagle’s friends went fruit picking on the summer holidays but for him, that work was too hard.
“My mum saw an advertisement for Santas, and she said, ‘You could do that’,” he says.
Playing Santa was like going to a fancy dress party and was indoors – albeit with no air-conditioning.
He still loves the job, which he even does at his Croydon retirement village’s Christmas concert.
“It’s so much fun,” he says. “You’re a different person, you’re in character, and part of a merry scene.”
“The joy is passing on the joy to others.”
Last week, Eagle taught 100 Santas in three seminars run by the agency Scene to Believe.
Sam Hargreaves was among the youngest students, at age 31, but this is a refresher class for him.
Hargreaves is preparing for his seventh season as Santa, this year on weekends at Casey Central shopping centre in Narre Warren South.
Hargreaves works full-time for a computer retailer but also acts in Gilbert and Sullivan light operas and does stand-up comedy.
He says Santa is the most rewarding performing genre because of the interaction with people and imaginative play aspects.
“I love the joy that it brings to the families,” Hargreaves says.
Retired sales executive Guy Bassett, 66, will be a newbie as a retail centre Santa, at Bayside Shopping Centre in Frankston, but has played the part occasionally, at social events and hotels.
Bassett’s inspiration is his Uncle Ken, who would immerse himself in the character at parties.
Bassett aims to be a slow and easygoing Santa. “I’ll be that big happy chap in the corner with the glasses halfway down his nose,” he said.
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