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12 | Commentary
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Being a Santa for everyone
is more than a job
Around Town
•» 4 11*.
Joe Earle is editor-at-large at Reporter
Newspapers and has lived in metro Atlanta
for over 30 gears. He can be reached at
joeearle@reportemewspapers.net
As Santa Rick sees it, putting on the red suit and the white beard and ho-ho-ho-ing
your way through the holidays isn’t just a job. It’s much
more than that.
“It’s the most amazing thing you’ll ever experience,”
Santa Rick said, “And it makes you a better person. ...
It changes you, and it’s the biggest responsibility you’ll
ever have because it touches everybody. It’s not a job.”
Santa Rick — the name Rick Rosenthal puts on his
business cards and website (SantaRick.com) and the
name people called him as the north DeKalb resident
chatted over lunch of matzo ball soup at a Toco Hills
deli one recent afternoon — has been the living embodi
ment of Santa for years.
He’s Santa all the time. At age 66, he appears as the
holiday spirit at parties and events year-round at such
places as Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta;, spreads hol
iday cheer on TV, at baseball games and photo shoots;
and even operates his own school to teach others how
to properly portray Santa.
“It’s important people realize what a big responsibil
ity being Santa is,” Santa Rick said. “He’s different from
anybody in the world. He doesn’t live forever, but your
grandparents knew him and sat on his knee, too.”
And he has plenty to say about Santa. For one thing,
Rosenthal, an Orthodox Jew himself, argues Santa
isn’t just a Christian symbol. Santa Rick obviously has
thought this through. When he starts talking about San
ta, his words rush out in a tumble.
“Santa is different from Saint Nicholas,” he said.
“There are two camps in Santa World. One camp thinks Santa is a religious figure
and he should tell everybody the reason for the season. Another camp, that I happen
to belong to, says that Santa is a toymaker and that he should provide hope, love and
inspiration...
“Santa is a toymaker. That’s who he is. He loves you and he wants the best for ev
erybody. He wants the best for you.... It doesn't have anything to do with a specific re
ligion. ... Santa, he gets around. He’ll visit people of all religions....
“It’s not about anything other than the children, and innocence, and believing in
the best the world has to offer. That’s really what Santa is about to me.”
Rosenthal, who held various kinds of jobs through his life, decided to embody San
ta as a career after his dad died in 2011. He was close to his father (“I had the best dad
in the world,” he says.) and, following tradition, didn’t shave after his dad died, he
said. His beard grew in white. He kept it for months.
One day when he was shopping in a Home Depot store, he realized a young boy
was watching him from another aisle. The boy appeared awestruck. Rosenthal sud
denly realized the boy thought the man with the bushy
white beard must be Santa.
“He was staring right at me like a deer in the head
lights,” Santa Rick said. “I walked over to him ... and
said, ‘Don’t tell anybody you saw Santa in Home Depot
buying tools for the elves.’ The kid just froze. I knew
what he was thinking. I said, ‘That’s it. I’m Santa.’ I
knew it was a sign.”
Through the years, Santa Rick has developed rules
for portraying Santa. He’s well-dressed and well-kempt.
“Santa is very regal and pristine,” Santa Rick said.
And, of course, he’s a good listener. “People will tell
you things they won’t tell your spouses, good and bad
stuff,” he said. “People are very open and raw, actually,
and they trust you 100 percent because you’re Santa. I
can’t tell you how it feels to have people unconditional
ly love you because you’re Santa. You’re that guy.”
There are only a few things, Santa Rick said, that
he absolutely would refuse to do as Santa — serve di
vorce papers, for instance, or hand out dismissal no
tices when employers are firing people. But the people
who would ask Santa to do those kind of things surely
belong on his “naughty list” anyway. “I wouldn’t do that
because I’m Santa and Santa wouldn’t do that.
“Santa is very real,” Santa Rick said. “Give him a
chance, you’ll know it.”
► Letter to the Editor
THANKS TO EMTs, HOSPITAL FOR LIFE-SAVING HELP
I shall be eternally grateful to the expeditious DeKalb County emergency
medical technicians who braved my rambunctious dogs then adeptly maneu
vered 1-285 rush hour traffic, and the proficient cardiovascular staff at Emory
Saint Joseph’s Hospital, for saving my life Nov. 14 when I suffered subsequent
massive heart attacks.
How very fortunate are we in Dunwoody to live in a community that has such
professional and compassionate heroes to assist us in our personal crises?!
Gary Ray Betz
Dunwoody
PHIL MOSIER
Santa Rick in his holiday best.
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