anyone here play Santa?

[Countrybumpkin]

have played santa for free, have the whole outfit, but was wondering how much to charge if someone offers to pay me ...extra $$ is great this time of year, but do not want to gouge anyone by anymeans! thanks!

[Countrybumpkin]

bump

[Quint]

I've got the whole suit too. Mostly I do it for free but the few times that I have charged a fee I charged 10 bucks an hour which I thought was reasonable. They couldn't go rent the suit and pay someone minimum wage for that. Especially my suit. It was handmade by a very talented seamstress and it a real work of art I think. My wig and beard are also top notch. I'll be doing a couple of hospitals and a couple of daycares. I'm suppose to go do a group home for little kids but I've been playing phone tag with the director there. I won't charge for any of those. Probably do the nursing home in town too. The old folks seem to get a kick out of it.

Something I really, really enjoyed doing but I think this is going to be my last year. The kids are getting nastier. I guess I should say the ratio of nice kids to obnoxious kids is getting to be too high for it to be enjoyable. That and in this day and age the liability factor has been entering my mind. All it would take is for one kid to accuse you of touching him or her inappropriately or a parent to accuse you of that and your life is over. The mere accusation is enough to wreck your life and make you a social pariah for the rest of your life proof or no proof, guilt or no guilt. I love kids and I dearly love to play Santa Claus especially for little kids but given the rampant molester hysteria these days I just don't think I can justify the risk anymore.

[Countrybumpkin]

Boy, you got me to thinking on that! But the joy of a little kids face...maybe I'll just do as you do/did...go to the hospitals, and resthomes, and maybe a few young children daycares...stay away from the 'bib' scenes that have tons of spoiled kids! The poor children always are the best behaved, and the most grateful anyway!

[timmcentire]

A friend of mine plays Santa at a mall. Of course they pay him, but a good way to make money from it is to have someone go with you and take photos, maybe with a digital camera. Then your co-worker could charge for photos with Santa. You wouldn't have to charge too much and you'd still probably make more money from it all than just charging to be Santa. Depends on your situation, though.