Logging into video chat has become rote: I sit down at my computer, check my hair, turn on the camera. But this time, I’m greeted with a jolly “Ho, ho, ho.” Santa sits in front of a bauble-decorated Christmas tree, frosted blue windows, a large wooden nutcracker and flickering candles. I can almost smell the cinnamon and nutmeg. “Do you have any questions you’d like to ask Santa?” he says. This ageless white-bearded man already knows the basics: what I want for the holidays, how old I am, even the name of my best friend.
As one of over three dozen professional Santa Claus impersonators working with Santa’s Club, a Santa video visit service launched in 2020, this jovial man—real name Michael Beurer, real residence Midland, Mich., real age 51—is putting his skills as a theatrical Santa performer to use to bring holiday spirit to the homes of hundreds of families this year—for a price. Last year, Santa’s Club facilitated over 15,000 visits to kids around the world. (Beurer alone did over 300 video visits last year.) At $35-$75 per visit and little overhead, that’s significant revenue for a first year business that only operates two months a year. This year, they’re on track to repeat the success based on the rapidly-filling calendar, indicating that at least this one pandemic tradition could migrate permanently into the digital realm.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]
Virtual Santa Claus visits for children are not a new concept; about a dozen small companies have pioneered the model over the years. But for entrepreneur William Evelsizer, the founder and CEO of new entrant Santa’s Club, it was all a matter of harnessing the technology at the right time. Evelsizer had been toying with this idea for nearly a decade, after he encountered a friend and his family dealing with the long wait times and awkwardness of a mall Santa experience in Texas. But it wasn’t until August 2020—as pandemic lockdowns pushed video chat into the mainstream—that he decided to put his…
Source : time
