The countdown is on: the end-of-year holidays are quickly approaching, and yet sometimes Santa Claus is nowhere to be found. Every year, it’s a headache for recruiters: you have to find a string of white-bearded men ready to play the character at a New Year’s Eve show, at a Christmas market or even in the aisles of department stores.
In the fall, schools, communities and private companies compete for the handful of actors, intermittent workers and temporary workers willing to don the iconic red and white suit to take photos or distribute candy and gifts. But the task is not easy because candidates are increasingly scarce, as confided Lorine Bartoll, director of an events agency in the Rhône-Alpes region.
“Everyone wants their Santa Claus”
This winter it has already hired 23 Santa Clauses for shopping centers, communities and private companies, but was still forced to reject a dozen contracts due to a lack of actors willing to dress up.
“Everyone loves their Santa Claus, but that’s not the case,” this agency director from the Lyon region explains to BFMTV.com. “We have a network of regular customers, but once the right Santas are chosen, the problems begin, especially during the weekends of December 7 and 14.”
Especially since this year, Lorine Bartoll had the unpleasant surprise of discovering that one of the retirees who had assumed this role for years had decided to stop doing so. “I was disappointed to learn that one of my best Santas, who had been faithful to us for three years, no longer wanted to do it,” says the recruiting specialist.
“When you reach a certain age, after retirement, these are really exhausting days… especially because the poor have no rest: half an hour to eat and that’s it, they can’t even go smoke.”
It must be said that the sexagenarian had suffered several inconveniences last year. A boy urinated on him during a photo shoot. But the last straw was undoubtedly the moment when families fought in line.
A highly sought after character
It is difficult to find substitutes, even if they “pay well”: Lorine Bartoll estimates that some of her Santas can raise several thousand euros a week during the festive period. “But you have to find them! “It is still a special role,” he says. “At the same time, everyone can do it and at the same time we cannot entrust this role to just anyone…”
Obligations that Frédérick Manzorro, professional mascot for six years, knows very well. “I know that many colleagues refuse to move on,” says this 43-year-old actor who travels through the Lyon region. “It’s not rewarding anyway: with the costume it’s hot, it’s itchy, and then you have to assume a role. You can’t settle for the bare minimum: you need a voice, a specific gesture, paying attention to what they’re saying.”
This ephemeral Santa Claus knows how tense the sector is. Since the beginning of November, Frédérick Manzorro has already received around thirty requests for missions for this winter, some of which he had to reject. “I know it’s a nuisance for those who want to send a little magic to children, but for me when I do three a day it’s already good, after that I can’t try harder,” he confesses.
“It’s a waste of time: it’s no longer interesting”
Based in Alsace, the Hors Médias agency claims to have started its search for Santa Claus early, but having not received enough requests, it was forced to launch an appeal on social media.
“We use all possible communication channels. We started searching in October but it is a useless effort, it is no longer interesting,” says an agency manager. “It is complicated because we are looking for quite specific profiles, profiles of people who like human contact, who are serious, who do not have a criminal record. And they are also specific contracts.”
In Poitiers, Saint-Brieuc, Carcassonne, Sarrebourg and even Châteauroux… A month before Christmas, dozens of job offers for Santa Claus positions accumulate on the sites of temporary employment agencies, as our colleagues from France 3 Occitanie a few years ago. days ago.
Kari Bounabi, founder of the Interim Spectacle agency, assures BFMTV.com that he is still looking for a hundred Santa Clauses for the season, although he has already awarded fifty red caps throughout France.
Being Santa Claus twice a year “no longer makes anyone dream, neither in terms of human experience nor CV,” he summarizes. “It’s a temporary job, so the problem is that no one makes long-term plans saying they’re going to do this their whole life.” A little disappointed, the recruiter also has the impression that “people are no longer eager to work with children.” “The Christmas spirit has been lost.”
And even when the character is recruited, you must still manage to hold him until the end of his mission. In winter 2020, The New Republic reported that Santa Claus from the city of Blois (Loir-et-Cher) had left his post in the middle of a mission, because he could no longer stand being insulted and threatened by his parents in the streets, who told him to “come back.” to the North Pole.” Santa’s life is definitely not easy.
Source: BFM TV
