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It’s official: Santa Claus lives on Long Island.
Copiague, to be exact.
And he didn’t move there from the North Pole to shave a few hours off his commute. He’s lived there for 54 years.
The former Frank Pascuzzi, a Long Island father of four, is Santa Claus. He legally changed his name in March so his moniker could match his life’s mantra.
“I look like Santa Claus. Everybody knows me as Santa Claus,” said Claus, 54. “When people look at me, they smile. I decided to take it one step further.”
It wasn’t much of a leap; he bears a striking resemblance to the jolly old elf. He has long white hair, a beard, a big belly, a loud laugh and likes to dress in red and white with sleigh bells draped around his neck.
But before Pascuzzi could legitimately call himself Santa Claus, a state Supreme Court justice in Suffolk County had to make sure he was a jolly old soul — and not just some drifter running from the law.
He passed his background check, and since then, it’s been all elves and reindeer for Claus.
“It’s tons of fun!” he said. “Everyone wants to talk to me. Everybody wants to be my friend. My Facebook page has gone insane.”
He may be the most popular Santa on FB, but he’s not the only one in the US.
A records search revealed there are at least 15 individuals named Santa Claus in America. There are three each in Washington and Texas, but only one in New York.
There are also nine Kris Kringles in the 50 states.
Being St. Nick has its perks.
In October, while driving his pickup on the LIE, Santa Claus accidentally rear-ended another driver. The two pulled over to exchange insurance information, and a cop showed up.
“He looked at my license and says, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ” Santa recalled. “I said, ‘Look, here’s my credit card.’ ”
The cop issued no tickets — just asked for a couple of posed photos of Santa and a reindeer. Santa keeps those handy in his truck for just such an occasion.
The pictures, the IDs, the credit cards — none of it stops the naysayers from trying to trip him up. Nonbelievers want to know why — if in fact he’s Santa — he drives a pickup.
“I tell them the big sleigh is up in the North Pole getting loaded. And I’m not using the small sleigh because the Air Force will stop me because they get reports about UFOs,” he explained.
“But they haven’t taken my license away, which is a good thing. Not for nothing, I’m the only person who has a sleigh license.”
Being Santa is, of course, a full-time job, but it picks up this time of year. Claus works up to five parties a day during Christmas time. In the milder months, he hangs up his fuzzy red hat to manage his budding catering business — Santa’s BBQ — and work a construction job.
“In construction, I have to act because I need to survive,” he said while walking down Manhattan’s Sixth Avenue last week dressed in full Santa regalia. “This is not an act. This is always who I’ve been. I just finally got to be the person I really wanted to be.”
And while the world has accepted him as Santa, his wife, Betty Pascuzzi, still refers to him by his old name.
“I told him, ‘I’m going to support you in everything you do, but I’m not wearing the floppy hat,’ ” she said. “I can’t change gears this late in the game. When I got married, I married Frank.”