Jeff Germann, vice president of the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas, has secretly operated SantaCheck.com since its launch in July 2008. The site – which sports the tagline “is your child safe on that lap?” — targets the online and offline activity of Santas it identifies as behaving badly. Domain history records show that Germann purchased the domain on July 4th, 2008 before making that registration private a few days later. His name appears nowhere on the site and he has denied to several sources ever being associated with the site.
Germann is the vice president of AORBs, the self-proclaimed fraternity of “a-List” professional Santas that has been at the center of the well-publicized “Santa wars”. AORBs split apart in 2006 after internal infighting over organizational funds and activities eventually led to an allegedly violent takeover of the body by Germann and AORBs president Nicholas Trolli.
The situation leaves Trolli and the AORBs board of directors in an uncomfortable situation. Just a week ago Trolli went on the record with us as he defended the Santa Claus Oath. “We wholeheartedly support the Santa Claus Oath,” said Trolli. “If one of our members were caught violating the Oath we would most certainly disassociate with them immediately and want nothing more to do with them. We take it that seriously.” Germann was present during that conversation.
When contacted by us about Germann’s activity at SantaCheck.com Trolli refused to comment on the record other than to say he would take up the matter with the AORBs board.
Germann had plenty to say: “Who do you think you are? Where do you get off setting yourself up as the judge and the arbiter of what is right and wrong here?” He then railed for more than 2500 words on the activities of those who oppose AORBs, refusing to address his operation of SantaCheck.com.
There has been some confusion about whether or not Germann has actually taken the Santa Claus Oath. Those who take the oath are required to leave a signature, which is recorded in a book with the oath’s caretakers. They cannot confirm that Germann has actually taken the oath.
From an email dating back to July 21st of this year to DefendingSanta.com, Germann is on the record plainly opposing the oath as he attempted to provoke a response from us on activities on a Santa forum:
You should see the postings that [name removed by DefendingSanta] posted, hiding behind his pseudonym “Phantom.Santa”. He still thinks he is very clever and that we don’t know who he is…. so he still uses it, calling people out by name to answer to HIM, however hiding HIS name. Here are the posts that were made last night. One is calling me out by name, about an oath I did not take. I do not need an “oath” that I think is written and being used to publicize a financial endeavor, to know how to behave in a Godly way. I follow a higher command of “Love the Lord with all your strength, mind and heart, and Love your neighbor as yourself”.
SantaCheck.com spawned the creation of another anti-santa website, papasanta.ning.com, operated by known enemies to the restructured AORBs. They claim their site was built to counter the libelous activity of SantaCheck.com and insists their site will disappear once SantaCheck.com is taken offline. Unlike Germann, the operators of papasanta.ning.com do attach their names to it. “Papasanta” is Germann’s Santa nickname, a clear reference to the group’s suspicion that Germann was behind SantaCheck.com all along.