Part 2: Our first article in this series provided the details behind the Celebrate Santa convention held in 2009 and the failure of the event organizers to deliver on plaques featuring the “Santa Claus Oath”. This article explores some of the history of turmoil within the professional Santa industry and how the Santa Claus Oath has helped divided parties to come together. Over the past 48 hours since we broke this story there have been many reactions. Read the note at the end of this installment of the aftermath and how the professional Santa world is reacting.
Dutch Schrap was only 16 years old when he put on the suit. A family friend had passed away, leaving the suit to Dutch and his father. Dutch put it on not completely knowing the significance of a real 1950s-era genuine Macy’s Santa suit. But he immediately recognized the power behind the symbol and the magic wrought from the twinkle in his eye. Children glowed, friends smiled, and even old folks seemed to hug a little longer whenever Dutch put on the suit.
What began that day has become a hobby, a small means of income and a way of life for Dutch. Now approaching 35 years old with small children of his own, Santa Dutch is quite a bit younger than many of his brethren who also put on the suit. Dutch can claim Santa has remained a major influence on his life in far from ordinary ways. It is a life he loves. It is an image he cherishes.
In his younger days Santa Dutch searched the Internet for others like him. He found plenty of places online to commiserate. But he was frustrated because as a young man he did not have the real beard – and that seemed to be a stumbling block in the brotherhood of professional Santas.
But as time passed, and he found and joined the broader Santa community on Clausnet.com, he established the relationships he was seeking to better improve his Santa skills. It led him to Celebrate Santa 2009 where he played a behind-the-scenes role in a Santa event like no other ever held.
For Dutch, Celebrate Santa changed his life.
Suffering as all have from the effects of the recession and enduring a significantly painful year in 2008 due to personal family issues, Dutch was invited and threw his heart into Celebrate Santa as a member of the media committee. He loved his responsibilities and became close with many of the key players, including Joe and Mary Moore, as the excitement built for the event.
From that event came two particular scenes that Santa Dutch claims took his service as Santa to a whole new level: the first was the Santa Claus Oath. The second was, as he put it, “seeing the Oath in action” as Santa-America presented one of their signature “hugs” to an elderly gentleman fighting disease whose wish was to participate in a Santa parade.
Santa Dutch’s sentiments have been expressed to me over and over by nearly every Santa interviewed who attended Celebrate Santa in Gatlinburg. “I finally felt the bad blood that should never have existed between Santas was washed away. Gone. It was finally behind us,” said one Santa who is still hesitant to use his name.
What could possibly be so wrong in the world of professional Claus? What could ever strike fear in the heart of a man portraying Santa to prevent him from even using his own name?
The story has been documented in sad, sour detail since 2006 rising as high as the Wall Street Journal in the media kingdom.
But the after affects of those convoluted events has not been recounted. In short, the entire Santa community has been split into sometimes warring factions. Groups of Santas have sided with loyalty to one side or another – and some have gone far in proving their loyalty by stealing clients, engaging in Internet flame wars, or even interfering with non-Santa related employers.
The ongoing battles have made a joke of the professional Santa industry and sown seeds of constantly boiling anger, resentment, bitterness and feuding.
While Celebrate Santa featured the Oath and put on a good face of unity, even behind the scenes there lingered bitter animosity as individual personalities were discussed and strategies were put in place to prevent certain individuals from involvement.
“We were treated like lepers,” said Santa Jeff Germann, Vice President of AORBSInc. “Nick and I went there as members of the Santa community. We had many of our members there. We wanted to support them. Instead, we were followed around by a private investigator, threatened with arrest and had more than $3000 in toys we had brought for donation confiscated.”
Michael Rielly, owner of Clausnet, was recruited by Phil Wenz at Joe Moore’s request to work on the media committee and recalls the difficult conference calls that were held to discuss the possibility of “rogue Santas” who might crash the party.
“When Joe started talking about hiring a deputy sheriff to follow Germann and Trolli into town I knew I had to get out and as far away from Celebrate Santa as I could.” Rielly says. “First of all, as a fellow Santa I just wasn’t comfortable with the whole ‘us versus them’ stuff. This was supposed to be a celebration of the Santa Community finally coming together. But it was starting to feel more like 5th grade. But more importantly, in my capacity at Clausnet, I’m ‘Switzerland’ – I can’t take sides and I shouldn’t have to. Celebrate Santa was supposed to be for the entire Santa community — not just a select few.”
Wenz recalls the worried conversations with Moore as well about the possibility of Germann and Trolli being in attendance. “I told him, the convention is private so you (Joe) can do what you want, but the showcase and the parade are public. You can’t stop them from coming to those events. And besides, they aren’t going to do anything with 500 or so other Santas around.” Wenz recalled.
“We tried talking to Phil on the floor of the convention,” Nick Trolli said. “We paid our way in there as anyone from the public would do and we were tracked and hunted. Phil tried to defend our right to be there. We thought that because Phil and Mike were involved that perhaps things were softening, that we could participate in a gathering that wasn’t our own. We wanted to take the Santa Claus Oath too with everyone else there but Joe wouldn’t allow it. Joe refused our registration. He made a scene at the hotel where we registered. At every step of the way we were banned, shut out and denied.”
Like others, Trolli is weary of the Santa wars. “I just want to be Santa and be the best Santa I can. So much has been said about the past and there is nothing I can do about it. It is what it is. It is time to move on and co-exist peacefully. We cannot expect to embrace the Oath with the world if we first don’t embrace the Oath with ourselves.”
That is a sentiment nearly universal in scope with every Santa interviewed for this story.
Except for Santa Joe Moore.
Joe and Mary Moore are very quick to point out that they are in this for the money. “Celebrate Santa is put on by our company and we don’t apologize for that,” Mary Moore said. “It takes a lot of work. People have no idea how much we put into this. So when we have certain individuals who are intent on destroying us and what we’ve built we aren’t going to let them do it.”
That attitude is what led to their actions against Santas Germann and Trolli at Celebrate Santa. And it is that same attitude that now puts Phil Wenz squarely as their target.
“I don’t know what happened to all the committee members who have left us since Celebrate Santa,” Joe Moore said. “All I know is that they started leaving once Phil started asking questions and complaining. We put two and two together and it was Phil who had Cascade Engraving post a note to the Santas on Clausnet and it was Phil who put all these Santas up to complaining about the plaques.“
One by one every committee chair person from Celebrate Santa 2009 has left since March of 2009. Two left immediately after the convention and the executive director left with his wife in July. Phil Wenz, Dutch Scrap and one other hung in there until mid-September.
“I confronted them about these issues,” Phil says. “The Oath was at the very heart of it. If Celebrate Santa didn’t make good on paying its bills, if they didn’t fulfill the orders, if they couldn’t be honest and upfront in their dealings the Oath wasn’t worth the paper it is written on. They forced the issue — did they uphold the Oath or were they making a mockery of it?”
Moore doesn’t want to hear anything more about the Santa Claus Oath. “Phil just wants to put us out of business,” Moore says. “I don’t give a damn about his bogus oath.”
Santa Joe’s is a singularly curious attitude.
From Trolli to Wenz to Keeney to Schrap and most others on all sides of the Santa wars – the Santa Claus Oath has come to mean something much greater.
“I had only a small part to play in crafting the Santa Claus Oath,” says Michael Rielly, “The last line, which reads: ‘I pledge myself to these principles as a descendant of Saint Nicholas the gift giver of Myra’ means that we’re carrying on an ancient work. It is fun loving, it is sacred, it is about love and hope and charity. When you study the images embedded in the Santa Claus coat of arms there is nothing in there about profit or sticking it to the other guy. We have learned that lesson over the past several years in our industry. It has been painful and we just need to stop it. Or we are all just a lie.”
Allen Keeney says: “The Oath seems to have taken on a life of its own. Having researched a bit about St. Nicholas of Myra I wonder if he may be present and orchestrating the entire thing, even including the notorious Alaska photo. After all he is also the patron saint of prostitutes and fallen women.”
It is the “don’t-use-my-name” Santa who gets the final word on this installment: “The Oath is cement. Not that it confines but that it binds. It isn’t found on the website or on a plaque or even in the raised hand of a man dressed as Santa repeating its words in public at a convention. It is in our actions. We repeat the Oath by what we do, not by what we say for the benefit of others. “
In our next article in this series: Money for nothing and your elves for free
Editor’s Note: Since publishing the first installment of this series DefendingSanta.com has come under fire and likewise has received praise for telling this story. Emotions are running high and in a world of instant communication misinformation quickly “goes viral”. We are trying very hard to be level in our reporting and to represent every side.
We have learned that those Santas who did not receive their Santa Claus Oath plaques have started to receive refunds from Celebrate Santa. We have not yet confirmed if Cascade Engraving has been paid for the work they completed nor have we been told what will happen to those completed plaques still in their possession (and still unpaid for). Likewise, we have not confirmed whether any of the promised monies intended for charity have been transferred from Celebrate Santa to Santa America.
Reactions on the various Santa-related message boards and forums have run the gamut. For days we have been receiving feedback from associated Santas and Mrs. Claus’ who want to provide information but do NOT want their names to be used. We have been sparse up to this point in using their “facts”, trying instead to represent their viewpoint through editorial quotation alone. It would be irresponsible, we feel, to present “facts” without the authority that identity provides.
These “Lost Santas” will in upcoming articles in this series have a greater voice. Not that their facts have become more relevant but that their opinions – in exploring possible solutions to the ongoing crisis in the Santa world – are relevant and revelatory. Also, on several venues they have been flat-out denied their voice and instructed by forum and message board moderators not to discuss this topic. Many of them feel frustrated as a result and look to these articles to be heard.
Is there a solution to this and can conditions in the Santa world improve?
We think so. And that is exactly where we are going with this series. Yes, we recognize we have extended the pain so keenly felt these past many years in the Santa industry by naming names. We have a few more names and embarrassing details to discuss. While painful, we feel it is necessary in order to provide context and a basis to move forward.
We fear that for all that we have said about Celebrate Santa we do not want folks to confuse Celebrate Santa “the company” with Celebrate Santa “the event”. The company clearly made some mistakes. But the event – from nearly everyone we have interviewed so far – WAS a healing moment for the industry and it needs to be repeated and built upon.
Amongst the many erroneous things passed around online since our story here first broke is who I am and WHY I might be doing this. The suggestion has been made that I might not be an actual person, that I’m really just Mike Rielly or some other person in some way related, past or present, to the Santa Wars. Some have accused me of doing the bidding of Phil Wenz or Nick Trolli or Tim Connaghan (depending upon the point of view). I am none of those people.
I would hope you would take the time to read the front page of DefendingSanta.com to discover once again why we are here. My name is Jeff Westover. I am not a professional Santa. I operate a network of holiday related websites to a vast Christmas audience that includes many in the business of Christmas, and yes, Santa Claus. I am a father, a husband, a brother and a son – and a rabid fan of Santa Claus. I would welcome an opportunity to speak to anyone about this topic and why I am interested in it.