As the real St. Nick enjoys a few more winks of sleep before his long flight tomorrow night, his representatives all over the country are ending several weeks of patiently answering questions and requests from youngsters who want everything from a snowmobile to 19 puppies in their Christmas stocking.
Although Santa’s representatives in the Pittsfield area admit to being a bit weary as the season draws to a climax, they reported in interviews this week that there is a certain satisfaction in playing the role of St. Nick.
Take Ed Schanz for example, who is Santa Claus this year at the K-Mart Shopping Center in Coltsville. He jokingly commented that he initially agreed to the job when “the boss said, ‘You’re playing Santa,’ so I volunteered.” Schanz estimated that by the time the store closes for the holidays tonight, some 1,000 youngsters will have sat on his lap during the past two weeks.
He confessed that lifting all those children on his knee was pretty tiring but described the rest of the experience as pure pleasure. As a former child photographer, he said he knows a bit about the psychology of children, and enjoys talking with the youngsters. He is rarely abashed by their comments even when a little brown-haired girl approached him with the statement, “Fred says he doesn’t believe in Santa.”
“Oh, he is full of little red ants,” came Schanz’s reply.
A random check of stores in the area revealed there were six Santas on duty this season. Besides K-Mart, England’s on North Street; the Allendale Merchants Association, Playworld, the Berkshire Common Merchants and the Big N all reported to have Santas in residence.
Some stores, such as Zayre’s, Bradlees and Newberry’s, which had Santas until a few years ago, have discontinued the tradition.
Thomas A. Pinzok, manager at K-Mart, suggested that there may be an absence of Santas in some stores simply because there “are just not enough Santas to spare.” His comment referred to the fact that some stores may be reluctant to take an employee off the floor to act as Santa.
There is disagreement among merchants as to whether the presence of a real Santa acts as a boost to sales. Thomas McKinney, general manager at the Big N, sees it as having little benefit to sales but believes “a store that is the size of ours should have a Santa for the public.”
McKinney said a Santa can be provided with a minimum of expense and that the only real outlay was for labor to construct Santa’s throne.
Business disagreements aside, Santa hasn’t lost any of his popularity, at least as far as 4-year-old Linda Ann Wicklund is concerned.
As John Wicklund, watching his daughter sit on the lap of Ernest L. Kirk Sr., the Santa Claus at Allendale’s, he commented, “This is the third time in the past week she has been here. I can’t keep her away. He’s going to have to push her off or she will stay there all night.”
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