Lifestyle

Wearing a suit to work

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Bushy white beard preferred. Travel required. Should have some training. Must believe in the magic of Christmas.

These are some of the qualifications to work as Santa during the holiday season, a job that’s not for the faint or those who think it’s fast cash.

“It’s not just about grandpa sitting in a chair,” explains Tim Connaghan, who runs the International University of Santa Claus, a California-based training program for Old Saint Nick wannabes. The workshops cover everything from the best way to greet children to when to belt out, “Ho, ho, ho.”

“You have to know when to use a big boisterous ‘ho, ho, ho’ at a tree lighting ceremony, and when to use a ‘he, he, he’ when you have a baby in your arms,” Connaghan explains. “[Santa] needs to know how to handle a wide range of situations. It’s not just ‘What’s your name? What do you want?’ Sometimes he gets difficult questions.”

R.D. Mitchell, 68, is a retired accountant who got into the Santa role 20 years ago when he was between jobs. He currently plays the big guy at the Plaza Hotel in Midtown and has perfected his bellow over the decades. That’s important because it’s often the only form of communication he has with the foreign tourists who frequent his lap. “Everyone knows ‘ho, ho, ho,’ ” he says, adding that the gift requests are also universal. The top request this year is “iPads — even the little ones ask for them.”

Posers need not apply, Mitchell warns. “You have to have a sincere heart. If you aren’t sincere, the kids pick up on that,” he says.

Indeed, the job isn’t all cookies and milk.

Santa is subject to criminal background checks, can’t take a bathroom break without being mobbed and can never promise children anything, according to Judy Noerr, CEO of Noerr Programs, an events company that places hundreds of Santas in malls and department stores across the country.

“This is not just a job. People travel hundreds of miles to see Santa. It has to be a special experience,” says Noerr.

That’s why her staff combs through completed questionnaires that ask questions such as “What are your memories of Santa?” Once candidates are selected, most sit through Noerr’s weeklong training program — Santa University — where they learn how to groom and bleach their beards, the best poses for pictures and tips for greeting scared children (hint: talk to the parents like they are old friends).

Those placed can earn from $10 an hour to thousands of dollars for the season, says Noerr. Private parties can pay more than $500 a pop, according to one booker, but many Santas show up to charity fund-raisers for free.

Some Father Christmases admit that the nonstop cheerfulness is exhausting, as are 10-hour days and dozens of appearances from November to January.

Scott Serafin, 66, a Buffalo-based Santa who also sells sleds, says his biggest, most exhausting gig included 2,600 children over seven hours at a psychiatric hospital. “I did not leave the chair to go to the bathroom and it ended with me getting hit in the head with a frying pan [by a scared patient],” he recalls.

There are also outrageous requests to contend with, like when a 12-year-old asked Serafin for a $12,000 Tiffany bracelet. “She even showed me the picture,” he says.

And there are heartbreaking ones, too. A 4-year-old whose father had just passed away asked Mitchell to “tell Dad I love him.” A misty-eyed Mitchell replied, “Your dad had a message, too. He wants you to know he loves you.”

The boy’s face lit up, Mitchell recalls, and he counts it as the brightest point in his 20 years playing Santa. “You have to keep believing you are Santa and it’s a magical time of year.”

Since Santa has superstar status, he sometimes needs a bodyguard to get to the bathroom and other places in the mall. “Santa can’t be in a position to say no,” says Noerr. “He waves and there is a trained helper on hand to deal with the crowd.”

Despite his reputation as having a jolly belly, Santa is encouraged to eat healthy, avoid large meals and get up to stretch regularly. Boozing also is banned because kids have a keen sense of smell.

Grooming is essential. An authentic white beard is best, Santas report. They start growing them in July and have them bleached in November if they’re not entirely white.

Mitchell grew his first real beard in 2000 and was hooked. “I pride myself in looking like the big guy,” he says.

Serafin also prefers the authentic look. Besides, he says, “I was getting older and my hair was turning white.”

One of the challenges of being Santa is counteracting mean comments from teenagers who walk by the holiday set shouting “Santa isn’t real,” says Mitchell. He tells the youngsters on his lap “I am real” and lets them tug on his beard.

But the hardest part, says Mitchell, is being away from his own family during the holidays. The Bend, Ore., resident stays in an apartment in Midtown that Noerr pays for during the season, which ends for him on Christmas evening. Santas have to be willing to relocate for work — they’re selected for sites based on their spirit of Christmas and the needs of the client, not by geography.

“I have four granddaughters and the youngest still believes I’m Santa,” he says. “She thinks I’m in the North Pole.”