Santa Claus Knows Who Gets Top Billing for Christmas

One week before Christmas, and Santa Claus is very busy. While the elves are rounding up the toys and Rudolph is getting ready to guide that sleigh, the bearded one is spreading holiday cheer.

“Today I had to do a visit,” says Santa Claus or D. Sinclair as he’s known by his family and friends. “This was the second visit in the week…they’ve been visiting with me for 11 years.”

Sinclair started his “career” as Santa Claus almost 17 years ago. You might say it was an unexpected gift delivered during what seemed like an ordinary day at work.

“I was an insurance salesman, and I was getting my license renewed,” Sinclair explains. “The gentleman who was doing the class was a Santa Claus, and his phone kept ringing. Every time we took a break, his phone was ringing. He stated to me he was a Santa Claus, and the previous season he made about 28-thousand dollars.  That had my ears standing up! I said, ‘Santa only works about two months a year, and he said, he works six weeks, and Black Santas are in demand.’”

The mall is where the holiday cheer started for Sinclair. He and his wife, yes…there really is a Mrs. Claus, “did the setup, the photos” but, they decided it was too stressful working both as the business owner and the character. According to Mr. Claus, “my wife felt my smile wasn’t as genuine.”

These days Santa will visit your home or office, take photos, and entertain with magic tricks and Christmas games.

He quips, “There’s a lot of picture taking…Santa is in a lot of photos.”

And, while we only see him for six weeks or so, Santa Claus-ing is a fulltime job. Sinclair has been to Santa School  several times “just to make sure I wasn’t doing anything incorrect or not legal,” and he maintains that signature beard 365 days a year.

He adds, “I try to stay in character 365 days a year. I’m known throughout my community as black Santa.”

Long before Sinclair and Santa became synonymous, he was a New York teenager with a beard who never dreamt his career path would lead to the North Pole.

“If you would have told me this when I was in high school with my first beard, and my high school nickname was Poppa Smurf, I’d probably knock you over and laugh at you,” says the father of four. “Some 30 plus years later, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

The years have been good for Sinclair. And, he’s making the list for being nice. One Facebook picture of him has been shared over 35,000 times. But, he’s clear about the real star of Christmas.

“I play Santa Claus, but the season is about Christ. It’s still about the birth of Jesus…and doing God’s work,” says the man who wears the red suit in celebration of the most wonderful time of the year.