Today we’d like to introduce you to Santa Gary Casey Casey.
Santa Gary Casey, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Because shaving is a hazard, even with an electric shaver I gave up shaving in 1995. As time passed my beard started to fill in on my face and people started looking at in strange ways. Being 300 pounds didn’t help much and in about a year my appearance was looking very much like Santa Claus. The only real problem was my hair was still dirty blond with a little gray in it. Not really Santa looking at this stage. I got a used Santa suite which looked really used and a lead on getting my hair done so that it would be very white. That lead got me a hairdresser that turned my hair really really white and for $300 I now looked like Santa. My hairdresser got me my first and second gig and away I went into the world of Santa Claus. My first year was very successful and very expensive. Considering there was only 30 or so days a Santa could work, it dawned on me that I could not make a lot of money myself to cover the expense of looking like Santa for the season. So I started recruiting Santa’s to work with me, me being there agent and paying them. There payment depended on the event and the payment I received for the event, but the end result was the Santa where always paid more than myself. I found a Santa Claus school and went to that school until 2004. I had Santa’s that wanted to start a more interactive Santa Claus school and I OK’ed that endeavor and we end up with Santa Claus Academy starting in 2005. We have educated a lot of Santa’s who work with me. I now have a database of over 2000+ Santa’s throughout the United States and with the help of my main IT guy and a national map that shows all my available Santa’s for possible placement in jobs year round. I am out of room so I am hitting next.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
1. Finding great Santa’s, training them and finding them jobs.
2. Advertising, in TV, newspapers throughout the metroplex of Atlanta, social media, etc.
3. Word of mouth advertising and rebooking last year’s events. That currently runs about 72 %.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
All my Cast members deserve total credit. Without them we are nobody. Instructor at Santa Claus Academy are a major influence in how the Santa’s interact with the Children and adults at the visits.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2235 Mill Wood Court NW
- Website: www.santaclausentertainment.com www.santaclausacademy.com www.clausgroup.com
- Phone: 7707298336
- Email: gwcasey@gmail.com
- Instagram: processing
- Facebook: Santa Claus Academy gary casey
- Twitter: gary casey
- Yelp: in the works
- Other: in the works
