How a Local Santa Claus School Trains Aspiring Saint Nicks

Santa Claus might not work 365 days a year, but his fixer, Susen Mesco, definitely does.

Mesco’s Lafayette-based Professional Santa Claus School has educated nearly 1,000 jolly old elves over the past 42 years, which makes her an expert in the art of being old Saint Nick. “The experience transforms you,” she says of her intensive Santa training programs, which can take nearly a year to complete.

Mesco’s Kriss Kringles have gone on to make Christmas magic around the world, from cruise ships to closer-to-home spots such as Union Station and Larimer Square. If you grew up with Denver-area mall Santas in the 1980s or ’90s, there’s a good chance you sat on one of her students’ laps.

When I met Mesco—who was inducted into the International Santa Claus Hall of Fame in 2019—for breakfast in November, she’d been up since 3:47 a.m., answering requests. “Someone wants Santa in Frisco,” she told me. The day before, she’d received 103 Santa requests.

With the big day drawing near, I asked Mesco to spill the eggnog about how she turns burly bikers into empathetic Father Christmases, the surprisingly serious scenarios modern Santas have to be prepared to navigate, and the shocking amount of money her students can make—and just like the men in red she trains, boy, did she deliver.

Editor’s note: The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

5280: What kinds of people want to be Santa?
Susen Mesco: Most of their stories are, “I was at Walmart and a little girl came up to me and she thought I was Santa.” Or you get bikers who don’t want to shave. They have a beard, and it turns white. All of a sudden, somebody’s going, “Oh, you’re Santa.” They hear that five or six times and they decide to check it out.

I don’t exclude anybody when they come to me. It’s kind of like God weeds them out, because I train my Santas much more intensively. For me, it’s not, Let’s put the suit on, go ho, ho, ho and jingle-jingle and then six to eight hours later, you get a diploma. When I train you, now you are Santa.

Why do people want to be Santa?
Everyone has a different reason. Some of them have lost their children. Some of them, their children have grown up and left home, but these guys loved Christmas, and they loved being with their kids. Some of them, their wives have died and they’re alone. Some of them loved doing theater when they were younger. We’ve got guys who got thrown into a Santa suit for a church event and they loved it and wanted to keep going.

What makes a good Santa?
Santa has to have two things: empathy and patience. It’s not, “How old are you? What’s your name? Have you been good? What do you want for Christmas? Here’s your candy cane.” If a Santa wants to be great at this, they have to take a breath and connect with that soul sitting on their lap or on the bench next to them. If you’re compassionate and caring, that’s huge.

You also need to have a positive outlook on life. Enthusiasm for being alive. That’s going to radiate. That’s where the jolly comes from. You’ve gotta give out the jolly. You don’t want the Santa who’s telling a kid, “Don’t sit on my suit. That’s a $5,000 robe.” Because, you know, a three-year-old might pee on that robe.

Wait a minute. $5,000? How expensive is a really believable Santa?
Some of them are in $3,000 to $8,000 outfits. Their boots are $650. That leather belt, the three- or four-inch belt, can be $400. Every time they go in for a hair bleaching and coloring with a conditioning, they’re paying around $300. Then you’ve got insurance and background checks. They pay for school, their websites, quality business cards.

Do you tell your Santas to be in character from the second they get into the car to do an event?
I teach one class that’s five hours. It’s called The Santa Mindset. I teach them how to think like Santa, because acting is exhausting. When I’m Mrs. Claus, I am Mrs. Claus. I’m not playing Mrs. Claus.

So, I’m asking Santa, “What color is your couch? What kind of pets do you have?” You don’t want Santa to freeze up. What is Santa’s idea of a romantic night? Is it getting in the sleigh, driving through the Northern Lights, stopping for hot cocoa, visiting the South Pole and seeing the penguins? What world does he live in? Who are his friends? Create that world for yourself, and then it’s not acting. Then everyone can believe.

What do children want to talk to Santa about?
Some of it’s gimme-gimme-gimme-gimme. But some of it is a kid getting bullied, or parents getting divorced. I grew up in the ’50s, and that was la la land compared to today. We didn’t have social media or cable news. I think some parents today don’t realize that their children are watching them scrolling on their phones. And they’re talking about big-deal things. There’s Donald Trump. And there are mass shootings and terrorism. Children don’t get it. It takes that guidance and that nurturing of parents to help them sort out what’s really going on in the world. But these kids are absorbing this, and they don’t have the ability to process that. A lot of times, children bring this to Santa’s lap.

That’s pretty serious stuff.
I don’t wanna make it sound like it’s all crises, but when it is a crisis, it’s usually a big deal. And somehow, the parents think that the children are talking about it at school, that school’s got it covered. But when that child brings something to Santa, you know it’s big.

We’ve seen homeless kids. We’ve heard kids who say they want their dad to have a job. Some kids want a washing machine in their house. Think about that. In America, there are so many wealthy people that we can forget that there are people seriously struggling. These kids don’t want a doll or an iPhone. They want heat in their house.

How have your Santas handled that?
This work gets a lot more real than they expect. Santas come to me, and they’re trying to process this stuff. When I used to work in malls with my Santas, I’d have a guy stand up, look at me, and say, “I need to take a break.” And he’s crying.

How do you prepare your Santas for those moments?
I’ve spent years thinking through those answers. It goes back to the fact that Santa might be helping that child work through a moment of grief. You might hear, “My grandma was just diagnosed with brain cancer,” or “My grandma died and I want her to come back.”

You open a conversation with that child. If it’s the death of a grandparent, you need to ask about Grandma. “What’s your favorite thing about her? Did you make cookies with her? What was that like?” And now you’re into the positive of what Grandma was about, how much she loved that child and how that child loved that person. You have to make that child feel heard.

That takes a lot of anticipation, right?
With Santa, you never know what that next person in line needs. It might be a hug. It might be an ear to listen. Maybe it’s a little child who learned her ABCs and just wants Santa to be proud.

Sometimes you see a young woman who’s clearly struggling with a baby. That mother needs encouragement, too, and Santa needs to figure out how to deliver it. It might be as simple as, “Santa’s proud of you.” You know, that can go a long way.

How much can a really amazing Santa make in a season?
$70,000.

Excuse me?
You wanna grow a beard?

That’s a ton of money. In how many weeks?
Three-and-a-half, maybe four weeks. But it’s a whole different thing. This is freeform Clausing.

“Freeform Clausing”?
Yeah. Most Santas are afraid of the freeform Claus. You might be on a cruise ship, or you might be at an exclusive resort in Fiji. You’re on all the time. Just asking a kid what he wants for Christmas over and over ain’t gonna work.

So you’re Santa in shorts. You’re Santa by the pool. You’re Santa playing volleyball. He’s hanging at the beach and building gingerbread sandcastles. He’s taking a catamaran ride. There’s milk and cookies every night. Most Santas couldn’t do that.

Is there any event you would tell your Santas not to do? Like, would you send Santa to a nudist colony?
We had a toilet company once time that was doing a big promotion, and they wanted Santa to sit on a toilet. I was just like, “Nope.” This is Santa, after all, and there’s a certain element of dignity that has to come with that.

Sometimes, we have to protect Santa. We’ve been in places that are more adult, like a concert venue, and people are yelling Santa’s name. We’ve had women try to put their breasts on Santa. You have to do a little bit of block-and-tackle in those moments.

People flash Santa?
They flash him. They try to grab his balls. People lose their inhibitions around that man.

Why is that, do you think?
Because life is hard. Life is complicated. Life is kind of ugly at times.

When you see Santa, you really go back to your childhood when everything was OK, when you were accepted, when you were loved. It was OK that your inner child shined. And I think people crave that because everything today is about pretenses. I have to prove this, and I’ve gotta have all this on social media, and I need to go buy that thing. It’s all about plastic stuff.

When you get around Santa, Santa loves you, and you can just be you.

What’s your favorite Santa success story?
There was one named George; this was back in the ’80s. He was a fireman who’d run into a burning building and saved people. He was burned across a lot of his body. He was missing hair. Something happened to his voice. My heart went out to him.

Back then we had the strap-on beards. George came to me and said he didn’t know if he could be a good Santa because of how he looked. So, I was determined to make him Santa. I got him a beard and an outfit that fit him well. He was huge—like, six-foot-five.

I put a little bit of makeup on him and got him ready. When George went out there for the first time, I could see his heart lift. He had so much to give, with what’d he’d gone through with his recovery. He had the compassion; he had the patience. He had this tremendous love.

He put that dang Santa suit on, and it was like…

Well, now I’m crying.
Santa isn’t just for kids, you know? He can be therapy for the people who do it. It can be a beautiful thing. For that moment, they get the chance to lose themselves in that magic, too.