Traveling school teaches Santas tricks of the trade

DUBLIN, Ohio -- Behind the door of Meeting Room One at the Hyatt Place in Dublin, Santa shouts out commands to his class like a drill sergeant.

"Give me a ho!" he cried.

"Ho!" a dozen Santas and Mrs. Clauses, clad in reindeer-themed bowling shirts and Crocs covered in Christmas lights, responded.

"Give me a ho! Ho!"

"Ho! Ho!"

"Give me a ho! Ho! Ho!"

"Ho! Ho! Ho!"

"What does that mean?"

"Merry Christmas!"

It's not every day that you find a dozen Santas and Mrs. Clauses in the same place. To even see a few enjoying the hotel's continental breakfast -- especially in June -- might prompt to you to do double take.

But at School4Santa, the world's largest traveling Santa school, it's a normal day of class.

For the last 17 years, Tim Connaghan, better known as the Hollywood Santa, has traveled the world teaching other Santas like himself the tricks of the trade.

He hosts several two-day conferences a year in hotel meeting rooms and on cruise ships to learn everything there is to know about being a Santa. For $299, the school includes 16 hours of instruction, a copy of Connaghan's 240-page book "Behind the Red Suit," and a Bachelor of SantaClausology diploma.

The school is held during the summer so Santas are ready to go by November. This year's Columbus conference was held Saturday and Sunday, with an advanced session on Monday.

"Today's Santa has to learn a lot more than what we did in the 1970s," Connaghan, 70, said.

When Connaghan began his career as a mall Santa in college, he was handed a short list of do's and don'ts. Today, he said, Santas need to be equipped in every area of the industry -- from posing for pictures and styling your beard to writing contracts and answering children's difficult questions.

"Everyone assumes you just have to be a nice grandpa or granny," Connaghan said. "It's so much more than just that."

Mike Smith walked into Downtown's City Center Mall 27 years ago and asked if they needed a Santa for the season. He was hired on the spot, but he was clueless.

"There was no one there to teach you," said the 67-year-old West Side resident and president of Buckeye Santas.

During his nearly three-decade career, Smith has been Santa in almost every mall in Columbus and has attended School4Santa a handful of times (which has earned him his doctorate in SantaClausology.)

"Every time I come, I learn something new," Smith said.

For other Santas, Saturday's session was their first introduction to the industry.

Randall Reed, a self-proclaimed newbie, already has a mall Santa gig lined up for the holiday season. Reed made himself a Santa Claus baseball hat -- a simple red cap with a white sequined "SC" emblazoned to the front -- but he had yet to wear it Saturday morning. For that, he said, he needed to learn more.

"I don't feel worthy enough to wear it yet," Reed, 67, of Canton, said.