Things You Don’t Know About Santa Claus

You know Santa has to pull an all nighter only once per year, so that's a pretty good vacation package, but here are some other things you don't know about Santa Claus. 

If you think being Santa Claus is a piece of cake, think about this: Santa regularly gets coughed on, sneezed on, has to work 12 hour days, has limited breaks, has to deal with screaming children and cranky parents.

With that said, mall Santas can make a bundle of cash in a short amount of time. Most can easily make $15 thousand dollars in two months. Some can make $80 thousand dollars and the really busy ones can see about 30 thousand kids a season.

Getting into the business is not cheap. A good Santa suit can cost between $400 and two thousand dollars. That doesn't include the hair and the beard. Quality Santa Claus wigs made of yak hair can cost as much as $15 hundred bucks. A lot of mall Santas also have to have a back up suit just in case a child has an "accident". About one third of mall Santas say that they've been peed on.

Almost all mall Santas are college educated. Roughly 90 percent of mall Santas have a degree of some sort, but a lot of them also get special training at Santa Schools. (Yes, Virginia they do exist.) Santa School can cost as much as a thousand bucks!

Mall Santas have a quota. The mall makes money off the photos Santa takes with the kids and a lot of mall Santas either get a bonus or a cut of the photo fees if they see a certain number of kids each day. That's why your child only gets about 30 seconds on his lap. If you want more time with Santa Claus, they can charge between $50 and three hundred dollars an hour for parties, or you can just avoid peak times like weekends and Christmas Eve.